Hospital cleaners ‘deserve respect’
Cleaners are first line of defence
WE MUST move away from the “tired old image of Coronation
Street’s Hilda Ogden (inset) with her curlers, mop and bucket” when viewing cleaners and value the work they do in fighting deadly superbugs, a health charity has said.
Antibiotic Research UK said a recent pay offer of between 11-13 per cent to hospital cleaners should mark the beginning of a concerted campaign to value the role. Its chief executive, Professor Colin Garner, said hospital cleaners help stop the spread of deadly infections such as MRSA – meaning the work they do can make the difference between life and death.
He said: “Cleaning is one of the most important jobs in our society, and without it literally everything would shut down.
“Yet it receives little recognition and is often poorly paid. Completed in unsociable hours, the impact and importance of our cleaners is not seen or appreciated – or perhaps it is just that the public is snobby about the profession and indeed any job where people work with their hands. “Deadly superbugs such as MRSA and C-difficile can be spread if we do not keep hygiene levels high. That involves making sure that potentially contaminated surfaces such as the toilet, flush handle, sinks, taps, lightswitches and door handles are cleansed thoroughly and that visitors and healthcare professionals have access to hand sanitisers and gel. “Doctors, nurses, even receptionists receive our acclaim. We should add cleaners to that list, for carrying out this most important, difficult and sometimes dirty job.” He said the average wage for cleaners overall is just £7.27 an hour, with experience counting for nothing and long service rarely rewarded. Hours can be long and physical and contracts also tend to be short-term or even zero hours.
AS CAMPAIGNS grow to keep the NHS in public hands, and to limit the outsourcing of key services in the wake of the collapse of the contractor Carillion, it’s important to remember that hospitals are teams. Irrespective of how they are run, the most effective are invariably those where cleaners, caterers and other ancillary staff are valued as much as the medical expertise of consultants, doctors and nurses.
And this is important as a charity claims the tired old image of Coronation Street actress Hilda Ogden with her curlers, mop and bucket does a disservice to cleaners whose low-paid work, often at anti-social hours, is, in fact, the first line in the fight against deadly hospital infections and superbugs.
As such, Antibiotic Research UK says a recent pay offer of between 11-13 per cent to hospital cleaners should mark the beginning of a concerted campaign to value the role. For, while Otley’s Wharfedale Hospital is amongst those to ensure that hand sanitisers are widely available, the cleanliness of a hospital – and its approach to hygiene – is invariably indicative of a wider management culture and whether staff function as a well-run team or not.