Hospital superbug thrives on cut-price cleaning

13 Jan 05
Market testing of hospital cleaning has led to a rise in infections such as the MRSA 'superbug', Unison claimed this week.

14 January 2005

Market testing of hospital cleaning has led to a rise in infections such as the MRSA 'superbug', Unison claimed this week.

The union, insisting it was not adopting a simplistic approach of 'NHS cleaners good, private cleaners bad', pointed to research published on January 13 that concluded outsourcing had driven down cleaning standards. This was due to the tendering process, which focuses on cost rather than quality, it claimed.

The report, written by Steve Davies, a senior research fellow at Cardiff University, said the contractual relationship 'atomised' functions within a hospital and prevented clinical and non-clinical staff working together as a team to tackle the cleanliness of wards.

Cleaning standards were hit as contractors laid off staff to increase profits, Unison added. In 2003/04, the number of cleaners in the NHS fell to 55,000, down from around 100,000 20 years ago.

The report concluded that the tendering process should be scrapped, regardless of whether or not the service was contracted out, as it tended to drive down prices at the expense of quality.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis, who this week revealed he had contracted MRSA while in hospital, said: 'Alongside the human suffering, the financial cost of hospital infections runs into billions, and to underestimate the contribution that cleaning staff can make to infection control is plain foolish. As the number of cleaners have gone down, infection rates have soared.

'Let's get back to basics. Get more cleaners on the wards and around our hospitals and make them part of the NHS infection control team. This is the only way that we can make sure staff are properly trained and flexible enough to deal with problems quickly.'

Health Secretary John Reid said the fall in hospital cleaner numbers could be explained by the reduction in hospital numbers over the past 20 years. But he added: 'I have made it plain to chief executives that cleanliness cannot be regarded as an optional extra – it has to be put right back at the centre of what hospitals are about.'

Reid said frontline nurses had been given control over ward hygiene. But Unison said this merely added more paperwork for clinical staff.

PFjan2005

Did you enjoy this article?

AddToAny

Top