New Street Cleaners Introduced in a Bid to Improve Conditions
March 24, 2009 Posted by Administrator in : Cleaning News,News,environment , add a commentSalford’s fleet of street cleaners have introduced two new vehicles to aid the cleaning process.
Salix Homes, for central Salford, has brought in a new road sweeper and a fly tipping van to help clean the area.
The two vehicles will be added to the team of 42 street cleaners provided by the council’s environmental services.
They will act as a rapid response team for central Salford and will be sent out as and when needed to deal with any concerns from residents about fly-tipping or litter in their neighbourhoods.
The street cleaners are part of Salix Homes’ Better Neighbourhoods programme, who is working to transform neighbourhoods by making them cleaner, greener and safer.
The head of better neighbourhoods for Salix Homes, said: ‘As well as providing housing services, we play a wider role in developing neighbourhoods and these cleaners are an example of the different types of work we’re doing with partners to continuously improve services for local people.’
Cllr Keith Mann added: ‘These new vehicles are additional to the council’s street cleaning service and will be used when required to respond to any issues from people living areas managed by Salix Homes.’
Hospital Cleaning Team Wins Award
March 17, 2009 Posted by Katie in : Cleaning News,Hospital Cleaning,News,Total Clean Services , add a commentTaunton’s Musgrove Park Hospital cleaning team has won the chairman’s award for excellence.
A panel of judges praised the team for their commitment and positive attitude towards their cleaning duties, and for the significant difference they’ve made to Musgrove.
Cleaning co-ordinator at Musgrove, Ruth Stephens, said: ‘They’re very thorough, take real pride in their work and are always looking to help out. In the last year, we’ve spent over £1m on cleaning and now there are cleaners in the hospital 24 hours a day, seven days a week.’
Chairman Ros Wyke said: ‘Cleanliness is very important to us at Musgrove, and the cleaning teams have helped to reduce our infection rate and improve the hospital environment.’
She added: ‘MRSA is down by over 70% in the last two years – and the teams have played a big role in that.’
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Eye Hospital Told to Clean up Their Act!
March 11, 2009 Posted by Katie in : Cleaning News,Hospital Cleaning,News , add a commentAn Eye Hospital in Moorfields has been told to improve the way they clean medical equipment.
A Healthcare Commission report into hygiene at the hospital found laser probes, (which are used to measure patients’ eyes) were not being cleaned properly.
The watchdog has given the hospital six months to improve their standards.
The investigation stated: ‘In the accident and emergency department, we observed staff decontaminating laser probes.’
‘We found that there were no guidelines or protocols for the cleaning of this equipment; the medical staff could not remember having had training on the decontamination of this equipment.’
‘No record was kept of the date that the decontaminating solution for this equipment had been prepared and decontamination was taking place in a clinical rather than processing area.’
However, investigators found that the hospital, which has a worldwide name for pioneering eye treatments, was meeting all other guidelines put in place to stop the spread of superbugs.
Last year the Commission rated the trust as “excellent” for use of resources and “fair” for quality of services in its annual health check.
A spokeswoman for Moorfields Hospital said the breach found by inspectors was a minor one.
She explained: ‘Although this has no impact on patient care, we are now putting in place additional training and guidance for staff responsible for the local cleaning of clinical instruments to assure ourselves and the Healthcare Commission that we will fully comply with this requirement in future.’
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Hospitals Throughout Scotland are to Benefit From New Steam Cleaners.
March 4, 2009 Posted by Katie in : Cleaning News,Hospital Cleaning,News , add a commentThe Scottish Government is to distribute 250 steam cleaners at a cost of £400,000.
These will allow for specialist cleaning and when used with micro-fibre cloths are particularly effective against C.difficile.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: ‘Cleanliness is crucial in our hospitals and is a simple way to help combat infections like MRSA and C.diff.’
‘Steam cleaning is a particularly effective way of cleaning areas affected by C.diff and substantially increasing the number of steam cleaners available to the NHS will ensure they are available locally when needed.’
Across NHS Scotland there are currently 20 steam cleaners which have provided sufficient evidence of their effectiveness, which should encourage the government to invest in more.
Health Facilities in Scotland will purchase the steam cleaning packages on behalf of NHS Scotland.
Over three years the government is to invest £54 million in a range of initiatives designed to tackle hospital super-bugs.
Some of these initiatives include a national MRSA screening programme, 100% single room provision in all new hospitals as well as doctors being prudent in the prescribing of antibiotics.
