The iDCS specialised hospital and healthcare deep cleaning service from cleaning contractors City & Kent Cleaning was recently used to deep clean maternity clinics, wards and other clinical services throughout the Mid-Essex Primary Care Trust.

The aim, according to Jean Glasspool, business development director at City & Kent, was to take the hassle out of an extremely pressured group of medical areas. In all, the intensive deep cleans were carried out at three wards, two outpatients departments, one endoscopy, and two phlebotomy departments, as well as the two maternity clinics. In addition, two Rapid Assessment Areas and two therapy departments were also deep cleaned.

The majority of the work was carried out overnight or at weekends as the Primary Care Trust could not interrupt its clinical services.
The iDCS service embraces specialist applications that effectively provide for a cleaner, safer healthcare environment. All areas, including beds and surrounding curtains, are steam decontaminated, as are trolleys, fans and wheelchairs.

The NHS Confederation has announced it has decided to separate off its specialised facilities support company, the Healthcare Facilities Consortium (HFC). The move comes after an extensive market review lasting 18 months.

This decision will allow the HFC to better develop and respond to the needs of the NHS in a faster and more commercially focused manner. In doing so, the current management of the company, along with one of its partners, will take over the running of the HFC from the Confederation, with effect from March 2009.

It sometimes seems that there are not that many good stories coming out of the UK healthcare sector these days, with one national media announcement following another of ‘failing’ hospitals, and lethal outbreaks of C. Difficile.

Against this depressing background, Weston Area Health NHS Trust commenced a 60-day trial of steam cleaning on the wards of Weston General hospital using Steam & Vac Pro machines from OspreyDeepclean. The result has seen a dramatic reduction in instances of both MRSA and C. Diff. Taken with other measures, the rate of C. Diff has dropped by 25% so far, while incidences of MRSA have fallen by 34% since 2003/4 when improved hygiene measures were put into place.

Kimberly-Clark Professional has launched two brand new protective glove designs.

Kleenguard G10 Grey Nitrile Gloves offer the wearer the characteristics of latex gloves, whilst maintaining all the protection of Nitrile, a synthetic replacement for rubber. This means that they are thin enough at only 0.09mm to offer high levels of sensitivity and comfort while avoiding the reactions associated with latex. Kleenguard G50 Mechanics Gloves offer improved protection with added comfort and style. This means that they are more likely to be used by wearers who previously avoided protective gloves.

Over 80% of primary care, mental health, ambulance and care trusts have signed-up for the National Patient Safety Agency’s (NPSA) cleanyourhands campaign. Registration closed at the end of April with over 170 trusts committing to improve the hand hygiene of healthcare workers in the fight against healthcare associated infection (HCAI).

The expansion of the cleanyourhands campaign follows its success in changing the hand hygiene behaviour of healthcare workers in hospitals and trialling of the campaign in 19 ‘pioneer’ organisations representing the mix of different care settings.