Government tells hospitals to tighten up cleaning contracts
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《英国医生杂志》
The UK government has launched new guidance to help ensure that hospitals in England have clear and binding contracts to deliver high standards of cleaning. It has taken this step to ensure that the incidence of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other infections is reduced.
Health minister Lord Warner announced that the new guidance gives "best practice" advice on evaluating and awarding contracts so that quality as well as price is considered. It also includes revised national specifications for cleanliness, setting out minimum standards.
Lord Warner said that specifying how many times different areas of the hospital should be cleaned and what level of cleanliness is required meant that both hospitals and cleaning firms would know what was expected.
He said it was the latest step in the drive to improve cleanliness and lower rates of infection. The National Audit Office estimated in 2002 that MRSA cost the NHS ￡1bn ($1.9bn; 1.4bn) a year and could be killing around 5000 patients a year.
The guidance suggests that areas of the hospital be allocated to four risk categories, ranging from low to very high risk and that cleaning be divided into 49 elements including medical equipment, floors, ceilings, and beds. Each element is given a cleaning frequency.
The guidance was announced on the same day as the second round of scores from the Patient Environment Action Teams (PEATs) for English hospitals was published. These teams provide a local snapshot of cleanliness and food standards on the day of inspection and place hospitals in five categories, ranging from excellent to poor.
After the first round of visits by these teams in 2004, 90 out of 1184 hospitals were rated "poor" or "unacceptable" for cleanliness, whereas after the most recent visit only 24 were classified as "poor" and three as "unacceptable." According to Lord Warner, "the real low flyers"—the three hospitals whose cleaning was rated as unacceptable—had already contracted out their cleaning to private providers.(Ann McGauran)
Health minister Lord Warner announced that the new guidance gives "best practice" advice on evaluating and awarding contracts so that quality as well as price is considered. It also includes revised national specifications for cleanliness, setting out minimum standards.
Lord Warner said that specifying how many times different areas of the hospital should be cleaned and what level of cleanliness is required meant that both hospitals and cleaning firms would know what was expected.
He said it was the latest step in the drive to improve cleanliness and lower rates of infection. The National Audit Office estimated in 2002 that MRSA cost the NHS ￡1bn ($1.9bn; 1.4bn) a year and could be killing around 5000 patients a year.
The guidance suggests that areas of the hospital be allocated to four risk categories, ranging from low to very high risk and that cleaning be divided into 49 elements including medical equipment, floors, ceilings, and beds. Each element is given a cleaning frequency.
The guidance was announced on the same day as the second round of scores from the Patient Environment Action Teams (PEATs) for English hospitals was published. These teams provide a local snapshot of cleanliness and food standards on the day of inspection and place hospitals in five categories, ranging from excellent to poor.
After the first round of visits by these teams in 2004, 90 out of 1184 hospitals were rated "poor" or "unacceptable" for cleanliness, whereas after the most recent visit only 24 were classified as "poor" and three as "unacceptable." According to Lord Warner, "the real low flyers"—the three hospitals whose cleaning was rated as unacceptable—had already contracted out their cleaning to private providers.(Ann McGauran)