Chlorine dioxide water disinfection in low use community healthcare facilities

Water disinfection in low use community healthcare facilities

The Problem

A Trust were struggling with persistent growth of Pseudomonas and other bacteria in sites with variable, often low, water consumption. The size and number of sites affected, and their relatively low water usage, didn’t justify large scale capital investment.

Manual chemical dosing would have been inaccurate, expensive, potentially unsafe to handle and difficult to control.

The Options

Thermal disinfection of water supplies. An effective treatment, but potentially dangerous in care environments where elderly residents could access very high temperature water.
Super chlorination of water tanks. Like thermal disinfection, this requires shutdown of the water supply to allow the treatment to take place. After the initial shock dose there is no residual effect, so the process must be regularly repeated.
Install small water treatment equipment in situ on each site.

Our Solution

Installed Scotmas Alpha WA ClO2 generators on 8 sites. Alpha WA provides 24/7 dosing of low levels of chemical to maintain high quality water supply without shutdowns or risk to residents.
Installation only requires a cupboard sized space, keeping capital works to an absolute minimum.

The Results

Hugely reduced cost and disruption from regular Legionella positive tests. Annual savings of £80k (£10k per site) by avoiding Legionella retesting and remedial actions.
Effective risk management created piece of mind whilst caring for elderly residents.