Requires the Trust to provide care in a clean environment. The Trust monitors the cleanliness of all its services on a continuing basis.The results being achieved indicate that services are being delivered to a very high standard across all sites. However if you do see something that is below the standard you would expect please let us know and we will take action.
A monitoring meeting is held monthly to discuss concerns and performance. Once a quarter results are discussed at a Partnering Board where representatives of the Trust, the Community and Sodexho are present. All monitoring scores are submitted to the infection control team and are displayed on all ward information boards.
The Government requires annual Patient Environment Action Teams (PEAT) inspections to be carried out every year. The results are sent to NPSA (National Patient Safety Agency).
PEAT are made up of personnel from nursing, patient representatives, estates, hotel services and infection control. The latest inspections for Northern Devon Healthcare Trust give ‘excellent’ ratings across the board at five hospitals for cleanliness, the general standard of the environment for patients. In particular there is evidence of continued improvement in all areas whether this be décor, de-cluttering, hand hygiene or cleanliness. A redundant equipment procedure is in place in order to make processes for getting rid of clutter much clearer and simpler, this also ties in with de-clutter weekends which are held twice a year. Sometimes there is a perception of a lack of cleanliness when actually it is due to an area being untidy.
A number of methods are in place to get the cleaning right and keep it right. These include use of steam cleaning, microfibre cloths, chlorine disinfection in relation to cases of infection, colour coding and disposables. The cleaning frequencies and schedules are available for you to see in the public noticeboards at the end of every ward. Please do not hesitate to talk to ward cleaning staff if you have any questions about cleaning regimes. If they are unable to answer your questions the ward nursing/midwifery staff can ask a supervisor to speak with you or refer you to the Infection Prevention and Control Team.
