Caring for care homes
For nearly over 10 years, we’ve been providing planned and reactive hard FM support for City Health Care Partnership CIC. CHCP provides over 50 diverse services in community settings, from palliative care to dental services, and we provide support to their full Hull estate, including three care homes, three medical surgeries, four pharmacies and a storage unit.
The solution
We ensure that CHCP’s facilities are operational and compliant with CQC and HTM regulations at all times, We look after all statutory compliance for the buildings, from water hygiene, fire and intruder alarms to plant equipment, gas and electrical safety.
For the care homes in particular, it is critical to have their systems working at all times. We have 24/7/365 monitoring and call out so that care home residents are always safe and comfortable and the medical facilities are able to remain operational to provide vital services for their communities.
The challenge
Working in a live environment which operates around the clock is always a challenge, but our aim is always to keep disruption to both staff and service users to a minimum.
Last winter, there was a short loss of power out of hours at one of the care homes, which obviously causes great disruption to residents. As well as basic systems such as lights and heating being out of action, it also means lifts, call bells, hot water and food production are affected. Once notified, our engineer went immediately to the affected property, where he found the issue was due to the grid, rather than being a site-specific problem.
Since our partnership with City Health Care Partnership CIC began over ten years ago, we've carried out a total of 9145 reactive tasks and 7810 planned maintenance tasks.
contingency plans in place
We have contingency plans in place for long-term power loss, but in this case it wasn’t needed as the power came back on within a relatively short time. He made sure the on-site team were kept informed, and once power was restored, he ensured that all vital equipment had restarted and was functioning correctly, including distribution boards, boilers and security equipment.
The results
Maintaining such an enduring relationship with a client means we can take a long-term view of their estate. For example, we were able to recommend and fit a voltage optimiser for CHCP’s headquarters. Although an upfront cost, the equipment has reduced their ongoing carbon footprint and is saving the company £10 a day on their energy bills. Once the payback period has passed, CHCP will continue to generate savings on their electrical bill, as well as being further advanced along the road to net zero.
Our continuing partnership with CHCP means we understand their industry, and what is important to them. To staff in a health centre, anything is a priority that affects patient care, even if it appears to be a relatively minor issue to outsiders. The experience our team have working with CHCP means they recognise the issues that matter to on-the-ground staff, and can resolve them quickly, so they can continue to provide the best quality care for patients.