ENVI RONMENTAL DECONTAMINAT ION
The blueprint for cleaner, safer hospitals
Neill Simmons highlights the key changes being implemented by the new National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2021 and shares his views on how microfibre cleaning and advances in automated disinfection technology can play a crucial role in protecting patients, staff and visitors across the NHS Acute Estate and other localised medical environments.
The importance of hospital decontamination was brought to the public’s attention like never before during the COVID pandemic. However, many will not be aware that the NHS launched new national standards of healthcare cleanliness in April 2021. The programme encourages a collaborative approach between clinical and non-clinical staff to ensure the continuous improvement of cleaning and disinfection throughout the healthcare environment. Fourteen years after the introduction of the National Specifications for Cleanliness in the NHS, the new standards seek to ‘drive improvement while being flexible enough to meet the different and complex requirements of all healthcare organisations’.1 NHS England and NHS Improvement sought input from stakeholders, such as the Association of Healthcare Cleaning Professionals, Public Health Wales and numerous NHS Foundation Trusts, as well as leading cleaning service providers – such as ISS, MITIE, Serco and Sodexo. The initiative was supported by healthcare professionals from all disciplines, including microbiology, infection prevention and control, nursing and domestic services.
The scope
The new standards detail the general principles and definitions of cleaning and disinfection and who is responsible. Other key considerations are the frequency of clean, risk categories and standards for functional areas, and the importance of effective cleaning for infection prevention and control. All staff groups, both clinical and non-clinical, will be responsible for cleaning and disinfecting the different elements within a healthcare environment. In essence, everyone needs to work collaboratively to meet the cleanliness
JUNE 2022
standard for the whole area.
Cleaning audit percentage scores will be aided by a new star rating which should be displayed to give patients, visitors and staff a clear indication of the standard of cleanliness being met. This approach encourages collective responsibility as an area is now evaluated as a whole, ensuring colleagues work together to achieve high standards.
The 2021 standards encompass the entire healthcare estate: acute hospitals, community and mental health Trusts, primary care, GP surgeries and clinics, care homes, dental care and ambulance Trusts. This is an important thing to be borne in mind, as the impact of COVID has led to more minor procedures and clinics being delivered in localised settings.
Process but not products… The new National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness clearly outline the direction of travel in terms of cleaning processes and the audit system delivers the necessary checks and balances. However, a vital part of any cleaning regime is the equipment used, which appears to be at the discretion of each institution. Having supported the NHS and other healthcare providers for many years, experience has taught me that there seems to be no end of solutions to essentially get to the same point; everybody wants a clean and safe environment for the wellbeing of all concerned.
The decision as to which products are used to clean and disinfect a hospital is often based on historical usage. The fear of change and internal pressures mean I
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