Operational Cleaning Plan

Introduction

The cleanliness of any hospital environment is important for infection prevention and control and patient well being. Cleaning staff play an important role in quality improvement, in the confidence the public has in hospitals, and in reducing infection related risks.

The purpose of developing a plan for cleaning is to provide focus for this important initiative and this was first issued in 2003.

It was necessary to develop a plan to reflect the publication of the Matrons charter and the revised Healthcare cleaning manual, published in 2009. The Revised Healthcare Cleaning Manual has a complementary relationship with other cleaning-related publications: The National Specifications for Cleanliness in the NHS, published by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA), and Revised Guidance on Contracting for Cleaning, published by Department of Health (DH).

The revised National specifications for cleanliness recognises that, whilst many improvements in the standards of cleanliness have been made over recent years within in the NHS, there is still much work to be done. All too often, cleaning contracts (in-house or out-sourced) are driven by price, with insufficient focus and weighting being placed on quality. This new document clearly sets out the minimum cleaning frequencies in order for hospitals to achieve the national specifications.

Policy Details