CSSA warns of NHS leadership vacuum on cleaning
The Government's £57 million hospital deep clean has now come to an end. While most of the NHS Trusts met this deadline for the completion of the cleaning programmes, some have not. However the major concern in the cleaning industry now is about what will happen after the deep cleans are over.
Speaking following a CSSA review of the hospital deep cleans, Andrew Large - Director General of the CSSA said:
"The extra investment in hospital cleaning has generally made a noticeable improvement to standards of cleanliness, which strongly suggests that if more funds and time were available on a permanent basis, higher standards would be maintained. Without such a long term plan from the Government the deep clean risks being seen as a publicity stunt.
"Our major concern now is that there is a leadership vacuum in the NHS on cleaning issues. There are too many different NHS bodies with overlapping responsibilities, and this coupled with the autonomy enjoyed by individual NHS Trusts makes it too easy for responsibility for funding and managing cleaning to be fudged.
"I call on the Government to ensure that the benefits of the deep cleans are not lost, both by granting new long term ring fenced funding for cleaning across the NHS and by giving clear leadership to all NHS Trusts to ensure that cleaning is properly funded and managed."
The different Government bodies with various responsibilities covering cleaning are:
* Department of Health
* Devolved administrations
* NHS in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
* National Patient Safety Agency
* Strategic Health Authorities
* Individual NHS Trusts
* Healthcare Commission
* Care Quality Commission
* Health Protection Agency
A recent review of the literature around the importance of the environment in MRSA acquisition notes that "the removal of dirt might have more impact on the control of MRSA than previously thought" (Dr Stephanie Dancer, Department of Microbiology, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow; Published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases Online 31st October 2007:
www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473309907702414/abstract?isEOP=true
The Cleaning and Support Services Association is the UK trade body for contract cleaning, representing businesses that account for around 70% of the turnover in the sector. If you would like to know more about this issue or about the benefits that the association can bring to your business or are interested in becoming a member of the CSSA, contact Andrew Large on:
T: 0207 920 9632
3rd April 2008