HEALTHCARE & HOSPITAL HYGIENE C&M
Infection prevention – a frontline perspective Neil Nixon speaks with Yvonne Spencer, the clinical lead for integrated facility management at Sodexo Healthcare, who shares her perspectives on infection prevention and how it’s evolved over the course of the pandemic. Yvonne has over 15 years’ experience in nursing and before joining Sodexo was a ward manager at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. Over the last 18 months, cleaning and
empower people to be part of how we break
infection prevention (IP) in hospitals has
the chain of infection. If people understand the
been a much talked about topic. What are
reasons behind what we’re asking them to do,
your reflections and how are teams starting
we’re able to improve that experience for them,
to think about IP in the longer term?
and help them see that we just want to keep
A big milestone for us now is the new National
everyone safe. Making sure that you’re thinking
Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2021.
about these things as part of your IP strategy
These were about to be rolled out early last
can be transformational.
year but then the pandemic hit plans were put on hold across the country. Now we’re really
How has patient perception of hospital
looking forward to delivering against them. I’m
cleanliness changed in the last 18 months?
hopeful that we’ll start to see a reduction in
Yvonne Spencer
overall HCAIs as a result.
The major change is that patients are now really empowered to challenge if someone
our IP processes and technologies, alongside
isn’t living up to the cleanliness standards that
thinking and the way they manage infections
implementation of the new national standards,
we expect. If a member of staff isn’t washing
in a healthcare setting. For example, it’s
to evolve how we keep healthcare spaces clean
their hands or wearing a face mask, we find
important to create strategies and policies
and safe.
that patients will call it out and ask them to do
I think a lot of IP teams are changing their
something differently.
to deal with COVID-19 as a continuum and not an isolated incident anymore.
What strategies do you think deliver the
We want to feel safe when we’re at our
We must make sure that managing this
most impact when it comes to effective
most vulnerable, and our environment plays
becomes integrated with how we control all
infection prevention and control?
a massive part in this. I think patients are
pathogens, becoming part of our standard
For me, it’s all about the implementation
much more aware of their surroundings and
operating procedures and a measure that we
of change. You really need to engage all
how they’re being managed. In our hospitals
consistently report on.
stakeholders and make sure everyone is
we have communications boards which
aligned before you get going, making sure you
tell patients what they will see and how we
applying them to how we deal with other super
have the right frameworks in place to enable
keep our spaces clean and safe for them. For
bugs. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to develop
collaborative, connected working.
example, we’ll tell them that they might not see
We’re taking learnings from COVID-19 and
With any new standards or policies, it’s super
us cleaning in the daytime, simply because we
important to firstly put yourself in the shoes
do it out of hours. Or we use a UV-machine in
of the patient and think about what they’ll be
certain circumstances.
experiencing because of the changes that you
I believe that if you know what’s going on,
make. Listening to service users and patients
you feel more in control, and having good
in any development or design can really be
information is a key factor in that.
invaluable. Taking on board those interesting insights and ideas means what you eventually
How has that impacted the people working
roll out has been created with your key users in
in cleaning and infection prevention?
mind, which has huge benefit to NHS staff and
The pandemic has really put the spotlight on
patients alike.
the amazing work that our teams do for the
Working in infection prevention, part of
NHS. It’s more than simply cleaning, it’s a job
my role is to help service users, patients and
that makes a real difference to people’s lives.
their families to know what we’re doing, why
Before an airplane takes off, the cleaning
we’re doing it and how it’s keeping them safe.
and maintenance staff will ensure that the
By communicating effectively and informing
environment is safe, secure and clean, ready for
people about cleaning and control, we can WWW.CLEANINGMAG.COM
Continued on Page 21. OCTOBER 2021 17
