Healthcare cleanliness guidance finally unveiled
LONG-AWAITED guidance on cleanliness procedures in healthcare environments was unveiled this week at the 2011 Association of Healthcare Cleaning Professionals (AHCP) national conference in Telford.
The NHS has made great strides in improving cleanliness and reducing the incidence of avoidable infection and this will provide an opportunity to drive further progress in these areas
Commissioned by the Department of Health (DH) and the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA), the specification, known as PAS 5748, will assist in driving widespread improvements to hospital cleanliness. In particular, it covers:
- Governance of cleanliness services
- Assessing the risk of a lack of cleanliness both for infection and damage to patient, public or staff confidence
- Providing cleaning tasks
- Measuring cleanliness on the basis of visual inspection, including setting agreed performance levels
- Taking corrective action
- Conducting performance analysis and implementing improvement actions
- Providing a continuous service improvement plan
- Reporting cleanliness outcomes
The guidance is available free of charge to NHS organisations and for a small cost to independent healthcare providers. It is intended to be endorsed at board level and implemented by key directors. It is also expected to be used by those responsible for commissioning hospital services, including emerging GP consortia.
Welcoming its publication, Dame Christine Beasley, the DH's chief nursing officer, said: "Patients and the public have made it very clear that they want to see clean hospitals. The NHS has made great strides in improving cleanliness and reducing the incidence of avoidable infection and this will provide an opportunity to drive further progress in these areas."
Managing the planning, application and measurement of cleanliness services in hospitals presents NHS management with a common set of challenges. PAS 5748 is written by the people whose job it is to face and overcome these challenges on a daily basis
Mike Low, director of standards at the British Standards Institution (BSI), which drew up the guidance, added: "Managing the planning, application and measurement of cleanliness services in hospitals presents NHS management with a common set of challenges. PAS 5748 is written by the people whose job it is to face and overcome these challenges on a daily basis.
"By adopting this standard, NHS trusts will be able to clearly demonstrate they have the right policies and procedures in place to support the provision of a clean, safe environment for patient care."