(
www.phs.co.uk/phsindex).
“Organisations must instil indisputable
confidence in their premises if people are to safely and confidently return.”
Creating confidence
Liam Greenall, Strategic Business Development Manager at phs Group, reveals how you can instil confidence into your premises to help people return safely.
It’s not an understatement to say the nation has been rocked by the coronavirus pandemic this year, not only as a major health crisis but also through the impact of containment measures.
Analysing the experiences of 120,000 UK customers, phs Group has created the phs Index, a barometer for the impact of COVID-19 on organisations. We found that 43% of premises shut down during the national lockdown. Today, 5% remain closed.
Of those premises that were open during lockdown, ranging from healthcare providers and essential retailers to COVID- secure workplaces, the phs Index reports that they were 49% quieter year on year. That means only half the number of staff, visitors and customers were using these premises compared to Summer 2019. While 95% of premises were open by September, building occupancy remained 17% quieter, despite lockdown restrictions easing.
The reasons behind the sustained drop in usage is not limited to restrictions on social interaction and reduced services, it’s also about genuine apprehensions over safety. As part of the phs Index, we asked 2000 consumers how they felt about visiting local premises. Of these, just over a quarter (26%) said they weren’t confident about hygiene measures and over a third (35%) admitted they weren’t confident about social distancing practices within these premises.
This is a major concern. Confidence should not be the reason people aren’t using services and visiting the places they normally would, whether due to poor experiences or purely perception.
When it comes to being COVID-secure, hygiene is at the core. Get it right. Handwashing is the top measure in combatting transmission. Provide more facilities, signpost users and incorporate it into every routine. Support this with hand sanitisers at entrances, doorways and touchpoints to prompt usage and set triggers to promote compliance.
58 | HEALTHCARE HYGIENE
While cleaning is already firmly up the agenda with regular cleans and deep cleans, take your hygiene to the next level through air purification: physically cleaning the air enclosed within your building. We know COVID-19 is airborne and research has found it can be detected in the air up to three hours after emission. Air purifiers remove impurities from germs and viruses to pollutants and odours from the air, creating a cleaner, healthier environment.
Increased PPE usage has already become the new norm but, unfortunately, it’s become the world’s latest plastic polluter, taking up to 450 years to decompose and posing danger to wildlife. You should source designated PPE bins which keep contaminated waste separate and allow for safe disposal. We’re proud to say PPE waste collected by phs is diverted from landfill to energy-from-waste plants, turning it from a blight into energy to power homes.
For social distancing, help facilitate this throughout your premises by making layout changes, implementing one- way systems, limiting numbers, placing physical barriers and reminders through signage and purpose-designed messaging floormats. If you’re concerned that the unsightly tape and bollards aren’t welcoming, consider more aesthetically pleasing options from free-wall plant dividers, directional planters and planting units with integrated sanitisers. Then comes compliance: if you’re not seen to be strict on the rules, they won’t be followed so address violations straight away.
Comprehensive hygiene measures and robust social distancing practices are critical to day-to-day operations for healthcare providers. They demonstrate that you’re taking the risk seriously and will work towards allaying people’s concerns. Through these measures, organisations must instil indisputable confidence in their premises if people are to safely and confidently return.
To read the full phs Index white paper, click here.
www.phs.co.uk
twitter.com/TomoCleaning
"
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88
