Local healthcare services transformed – through to the toilets!
A state of the art LIFT project is delivering quality facilities for all – including its disabled toilets.
The new, award-winning £28m, 9500m2 patient centred designed Finchley Memorial Hospital provides a ‘one stop shop’ for primary care in ‘fit for purpose’ premises. The suitability extends right through its toilet facilities: the hospital features a Changing Places toilet for disabled users.
Supplied and installed by Closomat, the UK’s leading disabled toileting solutions provider, the Changing Places room is for use by people who need the help of a carer to go to the toilet. Giving more space, the facility also has additional equipment beyond a toilet and washbasin, including a height adjustable washbasin and height adjustable mobile adult sized changing bench. It is strategically located on the hospital’s ground floor, which contains all day clinical activity, by the hospital’s main reception.
The site project manager explained,
The Changing Places toilet was recommended by our disability consultant at the design stage, and whilst we have all the other usual disabled facilities, we could see the value of it. There is a significant number of people using the hospital, whether for care or visiting, who may need the additional facilities a Changing Places toilet offers. It helps reinforce Finchley Memorial Hospital’s status as patient care centred.
Added Robin Tuffley, Closomat marketing manager,
One in 284 people in the UK need a Changing Places toilet. Whilst the number now open to the public is growing daily- over 500 are now available in venues across the country – Finchley Memorial Hospital is one of only thirteen hospitals in the UK that has installed one.
Since the Changing Places concept was developed, over 500 have been installed across the UK, with Closomat being the leading supplier. The company is unique in being able to offer, in-house, design advice, supply, install, commissioning and ongoing service/maintenance, backed up by in-house project management of a Changing Places toilet or hygiene room. Closomat has used its expertise in the field to produce a white paper on Changing Places toilet provision in the healthcare sector, available for download here.
