BROMLEY Hospitals has effective partnership working arrangements with ISS Mediclean Ltd for cleaning the hospital site.

The procedures for cleaning are quite clear: ISS Mediclean domestic staff undertake all routine cleaning of toilets.

As part of caring for patients, and to ensure safe clinical practice, nursing staff and healthcare assistants take first-line action to clear soiling or remove spillages of bodily fluids.

Our nurses and healthcare assistants take a commonsense approach to helping patients who have had an accident' in bed, or beyond the bedside area, and are trained to help patients maintain their dignity during situations which can cause patients great embarrassment.

This is a normal part of their caring role. They take the first line of action to ensure

1 - The safety, privacy and dignity of the patient

2 - Their own safety

3 - The safety of others around the patient.

The nurses put on protective clothing and ensure spillages are cleared up and safely disposed of in clinical waste containers.

ISS staff can then be called to undertake a clinical clean of the area, and their response is timely and effective. Senior nursing staff are very satisfied with these arrangements.

The trust has scored highly in the Patient Environment Action Team visits to monitor cleanliness in hospitals, and receives largely very positive reports from the Patients Forum drawing attention to the good standards of clinical care, cleanliness and staff morale.

We would like to reassure readers Bromley Hospitals takes cleanliness extremely seriously, clinical and domestic services staff work together as a team, and together we are not complacent in striving to improve further.

MIKE WRIGHT, Nurse Director

TREVOR WILLS, Estates & Facilities Director

NICK CLARKE, Senior Manager, ISS Mediclean