EIGHT hospitals fail to hit cleanliness targets
EIGHT hospitals in Greater Manchester failed to meet strict standards for keeping ‘very high risk’ areas clean, the Manchester Evening News can reveal.
Operating theatres, accident and emergency departments, intensive care units and other areas where invasive procedures are performed or where immuno-compromised patients are cared for are classed as very high risk.
The National Patient Safety Agency recommends that all very high risk areas should score a cleanliness rating of 98 per cent to protect patient health and safety.
Analysis of official 2016/17 figures by the Trinity Mirror data unit revealed North Manchester Hospital in Crumpsall achieved a 94% standard and according to the Estates Return Information Collection, published by NHS Digital, 11 per cent of the hospital was classed as ‘very high risk.’
At the Royal Oldham Hospital, the standard achieved was 95pc in very high risk areas, which make up 13pc of the total hospital floor space, while at Leigh Infirmary, it was a standard of 96pc.
In the infirmary’s case, high risk areas make up just four per cent of the total area.
Wythenshawe Hospital, Tameside General Hospital and the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan all saw very high risk areas achieve a standard of 96pc, while Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport and Wrightington Hospital in Wigan just missed the target achieving 97pc.
Auditing of cleanliness is carried out regularly by hospital staff, managers every quarter and assessed by people outside the hospital every yearly basis.
Each room in a hospital is assigned a total score based on the number of elements that require cleaning.
Assessors then score each element as ‘acceptable’ (1) or ‘unacceptable’ (0). Once all elements in a room have been scored, the total number of acceptable scores is expressed as a percentage of the total possible number of acceptable scores in the room.
Scores for each area are combined to give aggregate scores.
A spokesman for Tameside General said: “We take cleanliness and patient safety very seriously and so are disappointed to have missed the 98pc recommended target by two percentage points.
“We will be reviewing our policies.”