Veolia Water Purification Systems enhances dialysis supply at County Hospital’s Renal Unit

Veolia Water Purification Systems has installed a Purite renal reverse osmosis (RO) water purification system to further enhance dialysis provision at the Renal Unit at County Hospital in Stafford. The global water purification specialist, which is renowned for its leading work in the healthcare sector, delivered the ultrapure water system on time, despite a tight deadline. The high quality system is enabling the local satellite facility to safely and reliably cope with the increasing demand for dialysis treatment in the region.  

University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) NHS Trust invested £3.1 million in the new and expanded Renal Unit at County Hospital to replace an old facility, which had only 7 dialysis stations compared with the 12 that are now installed. The modern unit doubled the space previously available and includes additional side rooms, making it ideal for patients receiving long-term dialysis treatment. Most critically, the expansion also enabled more patients to be treated locally, as opposed to travelling to Stoke three times a week for a routine procedure, as was previously the case for many.  

The hospital commissioned Veolia to install the Purite water purification system to ensure the reliable supply of high quality pure water needed for the dialysis process in the new Renal Unit after having used the firm’s equipment since 1998. The previous Purite system in the original unit had provided outstanding performance for over 17 years, but was due an upgrade as it was reaching the end of its operating life. The new unit also needed a machine with greater capacity to cope with the increase in patients using the facility.  

John Moore, Renal team leader for the Clinical Technology department at UHNM, was pleased with his previous experience with the company and was happy to maintain the long-term relationship. He was also impressed by the flexibility offered by Veolia in servicing and maintenance, and the ability to maintain the equipment themselves in-house or to call upon Veolia engineers as required. Most crucially, the high quality water purification system met the unit’s requirements in terms of the desired volumes of ultrapure water at the correct quality for haemodialysis and haemodiafiltration.  

In addition to its proven reliability, the Purite + system featured fully integrated, automatic hot water membrane sanitisation that ensured enhanced microbiological performance and eliminated microbial contamination. The purification process in this approved system sees softened, dechlorinated mains water passing through two RO stages for ultimate purity to guarantee the water quality meets the appropriate medical guidelines.  

Patient safety and ease of operation are improved further still, thanks to a number of the Purite systems’ innovative features. For example, it has an inbuilt full colour, touch screen display with an easy to navigate menu, including full schematics, and it allows for advanced data logging with password control. Perhaps most importantly, it features a sophisticated alarm system that alerts an on-call renal technician of the system status and if there is an error to ensure optimum treatment.  

With the type of water purification system selected, the installation was carried out to deadline and during normal working hours. The process was straightforward and with minimal disruption to the other building trades people, including plasterers, electricians and flooring contractors, who were working on the newly refurbished site at the same time. 

Mr Moore said, “We are very impressed with the whole installation, which was completed on time and on budget. By working with an experienced solution provider such as Veolia Water Purification Systems we now have a Purite system that delivers everything we need to give our dialysis patients the very best treatment in our Renal Unit. This equipment is vital to our main objective of protecting the health of our patients, while also ensuring reliable and efficient operation in the facility.”