Bristol Royal Infirmary

The hospital’s boiler house provides steam for space heating, sterile services, laundry and kitchens. It is vital to the operation of the hospital and to patient safety.

Make-up water is treated by softening and reverse osmosis (RO), and mixes with returned condensate in the hotwell. Chemicals are added to provide oxygen scavenging and pH adjustment for corrosion inhibition together with a polymer for sludge conditioning. The hospital purchases chemicals and the associated service under a three year contract which was due for renewal in 2015. Veolia was one of a limited number of specialist suppliers invited to tender.

Veolia won the contract by demonstrating its expertise and experience alongside its comprehensive AQUAService offering.Veolia provides not only the supply of chemicals together with a programme of fortnightly visits by a chemical technician to carry out chemical testing and dosing adjustment to optimise boiler conditions, but also a biannual full servicing of the water softener and RO plant. On commencement of the contract, Veolia installed new chemical storage tanks to allow unloading of chemicals directly from a delivery truck, reducing manual handling of drums and improving health and safety.

“Veolia’s take-over from the previous contractor was professional and seamless. The RO plant is now operating more efficiently, which has given us savings by reducing blowdown and over usage of chemicals.”

Edward McKnight
Hospital Engineer

Royal Infirmary and Edward benefit from Veolia’s added value of their proprietary AQUAConnect service management system, which allows Veolia’s Engineer to instantly send reports and results of regular service testing immediately. Edward is also able to access Veolia’s new online portal, Vision, an instant single point of access to all documentation related to the water treatment system, including datasheets, manuals and service reports. It even allows him to book a service engineer and renew a service contract, all at the touch of a button.