'Special unit' needed to boost hospital cleaning - 01/07/2009

Commercial cleaners should be given the opportunity to properly clean furniture in hospitals in a separate unit it has been claimed.

The Scotsman reports that Maeve McPhillips, a radiologist at the Sick Kids Hospital in Edinburgh, has called on planners building new hospitals to ensure they include a room that can be set aside for the cleaning of hospital beds by commercial cleaners.

Dr McPhillips told a doctors' conference in Liverpool that she had worked in a Swiss hospital where the beds are taken out of the ward after each patient and cleaned in a separate facility, thereby reducing the risk of new arrivals contracting infections while in hospital.

While commenting on the high standards of cleaning at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, Dr McPhillips pointed out that nurses currently clean the beds, but suggested mattress cleaning and the like could perhaps be a job more suited to specialist commercial cleaners.

Commercial cleaners have recently been given a boost in the fight against superbugs, which are becoming increasingly common both inside and out of the hospital.

Byotrol, a cleansing agent usually used to stop mould, has been found to be effective at stopping superbugs on hospital wards, the Daily Telegraph has reported.

London cleaning agencies can supply staff to help you with your commercial cleaning needs.