CLEANING & HYGIENE THE PERFECT MEDICINE
There has been a much larger investment and focus on innovation across the healthcare sector of late, particularly around the efficacy of cleaning and audit programmes, explains Anna Hallas, Medirest’s Head of Healthcare Cleaning & Infection Control.
Cleanliness and infection control has always been of paramount importance within healthcare settings. But, since the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen more focus and investment in innovation, auditing and standards. This is especially the case around the efficacy of cleaning and audit programmes which have really improved cleaning processes and the consistency of cleanliness throughout organisations. This helps raise standards, creates improvements and supports an ethos of evolution and throughout healthcare settings.
I was very proud to contribute to the National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness that were released in 2021. They offered the opportunity to set flexible yet more consistent standards across all healthcare settings, and detail how to achieve this, recognising that not all healthcare environments have the same cleanliness needs and requirements. Importantly, the standards acknowledge that there is not a one size fits all solution to cleaning and infection control but gives us all the tools and knowledge to drive improvements.
The standards encourage a whole organisation approach to cleanliness, with full support from the board – demonstrating the important relationships between clinical, cleaning, catering and estates teams, as well as the all-important collaboration with other wider NHS organisations. Primarily, they provide confidence to patients and visitors who will see similar messaging about cleaning in sites and, the introduction of star ratings in all patient facing areas is designed to provide confidence to patients and visitors.
The NHS England Exemplar site status has further pushed standards, creating a platform for recognition across the sector. That’s why I was so pleased that in
acknowledgement of the smooth and professional implementation of the Standards, The Royal Surrey County Hospital received NHS Exemplar site status for cleaning in 2022. Last year, our teams at Barnet got the same acknowledgement, and earlier this year our partner, Southern Health Trust, was the first mental health facility to receive Exemplar site status for four of its sites.
The standards are awarded by an independent group and the recognition means Trusts, contractors and SMEs can share insights with others, in order to help raise standards more widely and create a more collaborative approach. This is really important as we can all learn from sharing experiences and best practice.
“AS WELL AS INNOVATION IN EQUIPMENT, INNOVATIVE PROCESSES, IT IS ALSO IMPORTANT TO REVIEW AND UPDATE OPERATIONAL PRACTICES AND THE WAY CLEANING TEAMS WORK.”
As well as a deep understanding as to how different healthcare facilities work, innovation is key to improving cleaning processes and standards across healthcare. These teams are often the unsung heroes, who enable clinical staff to do their job properly. Over recent years we have been working to introduce cleaning robots. Cobotic cleaning means robots work side by side with people to support cleaning tasks - improving the efficiency of routine cleaning tasks in areas with large open spaces, such as corridors. The robots assist the cleaning workforce, using a scrubber dryer system, which typically uses 70% less water and fewer chemicals than traditional cleaning methods.
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