A blog written by Crown Paints

In this new blog, Glen Cooper, Specification Technical Manager at Crown Paints, looks at the different benefits of paint specification in healthcare estates.

It’s safe to say that people have never appreciated healthcare services like they have done these past 18 months. The continued dedication from healthcare professionals to see us through the pandemic has been inspiring. It’s also highlighted just how important healthcare facilities are.

Maintaining a clean, modern and up-to-date healthcare estate is crucial to allow healthcare professionals to deliver round-the-clock patient care. During a pandemic, it’s even more important.

Facilities managers have been working tirelessly over the last 18 months to make sure their healthcare estates are well maintained, to limit the spread of the virus within healthcare facilities themselves.

Thankfully, there are established and new products coming onto the market all the time to help facilities managers with their day-to-day duties. Crown Paints, for example, have high-performance paints that include in-built anti-bacterial protection like their Clean Extreme Anti-Bacterial Scrubbable Matt, which helps slow the growth of bacteria like MRSA and Ecoli on the surface walls.

The paint is made with innovative SteriTouch silver ion technology and tests show that its anti-bacterial protection will be retained even when it has been scrubbed clean 10,000 times. It also offers exceptional stain resistance for ease of maintenance.

As well as hygiene benefits, paints can provide added fire safety protection for healthcare environments. Crown Paints’ Timonox paint systems, for instance, are formulated with flame-retardant properties and developed for new and previously painted wall and ceiling surfaces.

The Timonox range is independently tested to provide a Class 0 rating against the surface spread of flame and heat propagation. While Timonox cannot make walls and ceilings entirely resistant to fire, it provides the first line of defence against flames to slow the progression of fire. This can provide vital extra time for the safe evacuation of NHS staff, patients and visitors from a healthcare facility.

Aside from the cleaning and fire safety benefits, careful use of colour can be just as important in healthcare facilities to make the spaces inclusive for everyone. Colour can aid mobility around a building for all.

Elderly patients and visitors can benefit from being in areas with a stronger, richer colour that can be recognised more easily, compared to pastel shades which become more difficult to distinguish as people get older.

When creating environments that are inclusive to those with visual impairments, it’s vital that colours not only complement each other but also provide the required level of tonal contrast. Contrast can be determined by the Light Reflective Values (LRVs) of each colour, which relates to the amount of visible light that is reflected when illuminated by a light source.

On a scale from 0 to 100, where zero is assumed to be an absolute black and 100 to be a perfectly reflective white (white paint has a LRV of around 90), it’s recommended that there is a difference of approximately 30 points between critical surface areas. Contrasting shades can be used to clearly identify features such as doorways, access areas, and handrails, as required under the Equality Act. This is key in helping patients and visitors find their bearings as they walk around often very large healthcare facilities.

Given the challenges of the last 18 months, it’s important that product manufacturers can provide as much support to healthcare facilities management teams as society slowly begins to emerge from the pandemic. That’s why Crown Paints have dedicated consultants and specification teams to advise specifiers on the best products for their environments.

Find out more today at: https://www.crownpaintsprofessional.com/sectors/healthcare/