Sustainable Cleaning
Meeting green ambitions, infection control objectives and cost saving goals
The James Paget University Hospital NHS Trust became the first Foundation Trust in Norfolk and Suffolk on 1 August 2006. The hospital prides itself on a continued com- mitment tomodernising and improving pa- tient care.With a strong national reputation for research and excellence in the quality of their training facilities, the hospital trains over one third of themedical students from the University of East Anglia. With a carbon footprint of 18million
tonnes CO2 per year and despite an in- crease in efficiency, the NHS has increased its carbon footprint by 40%since 1990.With the government’s climate change objec- tives within the Climate Change Act, the twomain targets are: • Aminimumreduction of 34%in carbon
emissions by 2020 across the UK. • An 80%reduction in carbon emissions
by 2050. John Smith, portering and domestic serv-
icesmanager for the hospital, said: “It is incumbent on all of us to support these goals, and reducing the amount of product we use is key to this. However, this is just one ofmany demands placed on all prod- ucts in a hospital environment.Washroom products also need to cope with very high footfall, be very strong, provide good ab- sorbency, deliver cost in use, and still be pleasant to use.”
Labour costs are also a significant pro-
portion of the hospital’s domestic services budget. In the past, to provide sufficient products to last between cleaning visits, Smith’s teamhas used high volume prod- ucts (including bulk pack and c-fold tow- els), which looked cheap on paper. However, Smith found that cleaning staff were always commenting about the high volume (clumps) of towels in the bins, and the amount of bulk pack product dropped on the floor at the end of the day. Of course, the hospital takes infection
prevention and control extremely seriously and Smith’s portering and domestic serv- ices function works very closely with the in- fection control teamto ensure that they are doing all they can tominimise the risk of spreading bacteria. He said: “Because c- fold towels do not self-present, users have to reach into the dispensers and the full surface area of the towel is never used and so users take large chunks of towel at a time. Bulk pack also has dispensing is- sues, with people touching the dispensers and dropping product all over the floor - unhygienic andmessy.” As a foundation trust, Smith has some
freedomof choice in where he purchases product. Best value is what drives his deci- sions. He had previously bought a small amount of product fromSmith & Coburn.
“It is great to find suppliers that we can rely on to help usmake a step change in our approach. It was important that both domestic services and the infection team were absolutely satisfied with the newproducts, and I amglad to say that this objective was completely achieved.”
Smith said: “Smith & Coburn were recom- mended tome by a colleague. Some initial test purchases were of a high quality, deliv- ered on time, at a good price and their service was excellent. In discussion, Smith and Coburnmentioned Katrin System products fromMetsä Tissue and, key to going forward, they agreed to allowme to trial the products to prove their return on investment claims. Because of the signifi- cant waste and the infection issues, I needed to find an alternative solution so, with Smith & Coburn’s flexible Katrin ap- proach, I decided to give the Katrin System Toilet 800 a test.” He continued: “We had also used a green
c-fold towel formany years. They were a bit ‘rough’ but drying wise did the job. How- ever, the infection control teamwas also worried about bacteria spread by touching the hand towel dispensers, and the wastage was very obvious. Smith & Coburn also recommended implementing some self presenting, non-stop Katrin hand tow- els. It was important tome that the towels were not white - we have found that white towels aremisused (taken as napkins for example) to a far greater extent than a coloured one - somy usage figures went through the roof every time I tried a white
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