Water purification: A new beginning

University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust is a centre for teaching and research in association with the University of Southampton and partners including the Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust. The Trust provides services to some 1.9 million people living in Southampton and south Hampshire, plus specialist services such as neurosciences, cardiac services and children’s intensive care to more than 3.7 m people in central southern England and the Channel Islands.

Southampton General Hospital is the Trust’s largest location, with a great number of specialist services based here, ranging from neurosciences and oncology to pathology and cardiology. As a centre of clinical and academic excellence, this is where new treatments are being discovered, new healthcare professionals are being trained and cutting edge developments are being put into practice. Emergency and critical care is provided in the hospital’s special intensive care units, operating theatres, acute medicine unit and emergency department (A&E), as well as the dedicated eye casualty. Southampton General also hosts outpatient clinics, diagnostic and treatment work, surgery, research, education and training, as well as providing day beds and longer stay wards for hundreds of patients. 

Two of the most critical areas for the hospital are the Endoscopy Unit and the Sterile Services Department both of which were served by water purification systems that were nearing the end of their lives.