water testing

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water testing

John Barnes
how long should we keep our water test results for clinic and home patients, I want to go paperless here but I want an idea of how far back I have to go, any info would be appreciated
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Re: water testing

Ian Wilde
Administrator
Hi John,  
do you not get your results electronically anyway? If you're still getting paper results could you not scan them and then ditch the paper? Any sample is only good for that moment it was tested anyway so by keeping them I suppose it just provides trend data. We are only sampling in our community patients every 6 months so for 12 months data it would only be 2 samples - not much paper as you can imagine! For main water plants being sampled monthly surely 2 years is more than enough to track the performance of carbon,  softeners? Same for micro results - you may be able to see the condition of the membranes and ringmain starting to deteriorate.
To cut a long story short I'm not aware of any time period for keeping results. As we get our results electronically I will just keep adding to the pile as it's no extra hassle.

I suppose the main question to ask is what is there to be gained from keeping them - answer that question and you'll give yourself an answer as to how long you'd want to keep them. If there's an official answer out there then it must have been derived from just asking that question.
Ian Wilde
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Re: water testing

Roger Moore
Hi John

MHRA Management of Medical Devices https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/421028/Managing_medical_devices_-_Apr_2015.pdf states "Records must be protected to ensure their accuracy is maintained and that any changes do not obscure previously recorded information. Procedures should include the ability to store securely to enable record retrieval throughout the retention period of records.
The Department of Health provides guidance on record retention [5]."


Also as indicated by reference in above text more guidance can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/records-management-nhs-code-of-practice

Not sure if this helps much but may be a starting point.
Kind regards

Roger

ART Chair