Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospitals

Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospitals and MIW

Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospitals are responsible for more than 2.5 million patient contacts per year. It’s the nineteenth busiest hospital trust in the whole of the UK and employs 16,200 staff. In spring 2019, the Trust was selected by the #OneLess campaign for the initial trial to receive two bottle refill stations for use by patients and staff. Following a very successful trial, the Trust invested in a further roll out of units to be installed on their sites. MIW Water Cooler Experts was responsible for managing the installation project.

The Brief

For this project, the MIW team needed to understand and answer the needs of both the sponsor, #OneLess. And the base locations, Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospitals.

• Throughout this project, the MIW team would be required to work closely with both the #OneLess and Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Project Management Teams, providing advice on product specification, logistics and installation.

• For this location, it was essential that the bottle filler be quick and easy to use, hygienic, vandal-resistant, wheelchair accessible and compliant with all water authority and UK Government health and safety guidelines.

• Once the appropriate equipment had been identified, MIW would be required to source and customise it prior to installation.

• Post-installation, MIW would be responsible for providing continued support and aftersales, including unit maintenance, servicing and sanitisation.

The Process

With this project, the MIW team needed to identify and customise water dispensers and organise an installation timetable that would answer the needs of both the Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Trust and #OneLess. The priority being that the equipment met all the needs of its prospective users – the hospital’s patients and staff.

MIW recommended the Branded Eco-Dispenser HTHB-1500-42 bottle filler as the equipment most suited to the needs of the sites. MIW only works with WRAS (Water Regulations Advisory Scheme) approved equipment. This guaranteed the unit’s compliance with all relevant health and safety guidelines. In addition, the Eco-Dispenser is sensor operated to both allow the simplest user experience, even for those with physical limitations, and prevent unnecessary contamination through user handling. This, coupled with external antibacterial treatment and internal filtering, ensures the ongoing hygiene of the bottle filler. And with a refill rate of 80 litres of chilled water per hour, and up to 340 litres of non-chilled, the dispensers should be able to cope with even the busiest times. Lastly, an in-built bottle counter allows both managers and users to see how much the unit is being used – and how many plastic bottles have been removed from the environment through this use.

Once a suitable bottle filler had been identified, MIW liaised with both the Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Trust and #OneLess Project Management Teams to customise the units with NHS branding and #OneLess messaging.

An installation timetable was agreed upon and the MIW team took every care to avoid patient disruption during the installation process.

The Project Continues

The Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital bottle filler installations were completed on schedule and on budget in March 2019.

Daphne De Leener, sustainability consultant at Guy’s and St Thomas’, said: ‘We are determined to play our part in reducing plastic waste and single-use water bottles.

‘The new drinking fountains are a simple but effective way of helping our patients, visitors and staff lessen their impact on the environment.’

MIW is now work with the team at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ on a wider roll out, and continues to service, sanitise and maintain the units as required.