Chelsea and Westminster

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Cleaning at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital

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Cleaning at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital

• Chelsea and Westminster was the first teaching
  hospital in the UK to use the micro-fibre
  cleaning system (2004).
• If the fibres in a micro-fibre cloth were laid
  out it would be the size of a football pitch.
• The fibres attract and hold dust by static
  electricity.
• Studies have demonstrated that micro-fibre
  cleaning clothes are far superior to any other
  type of cleaning clothes in removing dust dirt.
• We use micro-fibre cleaning systems across all
  our wards.
• Bleach destroys the micro-fibres so when we need
  to clean a contaminated area, for example in an
  outbreak, we use bleach and an ordinary cloth.
• The cloths are used by folding the cloth into
  quarters and using one quarter to clean a
  geographical area e.g. a patients bed, then
  folding again and cleaning another area e.g. a
  patients locker, and so on, until every surface
  of the cloth has been used. The cloth is then
  put into the dirty linen basket and another cloth
  is used to continue cleaning in the same manner.
• This ensures that bacteria is not spread from
  area to area minimising cross infection.
• The cloths are laundered on a daily basis in a
  strictly controlled laundry system

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How it works
What is Microfibre? Microfibre is a recently
developed technique of making cloth by
crocheting together fibres that have been split
to make them only 1/100th thickness of a strand
of human hair. This means that they are smaller
than most bacteria and dust particles. These tiny
fibres are crocheted in loops that work by
trapping the dust, etc. within the
cloth. Microfibre cloths and mops
are more efficient in the removal of dirt and
dust. By trapping the particles within the fibres
they are removed from the surface rather than
moved around and deposited elsewhere. These
particles are then held within the cloth until
they are released in the laundering process.
When used damp, dirt and bacteria are drawn up by
the capillary action
When used dry, dirt and bacteria are attracted to
the fibres by static electricity
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What is Microfibre?
Dirty microfibres. Static electricity ensures
that the dirt stays on the fibres, only being
released in the laundering process
Clean microfibres
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Why cant you routinely smell disinfectants when
you walk into Chelsea and Westminster Hospital?

• Disinfectants are not routinely used for cleaning
  in hospitals.
• This is to minimise the risk of the bacteria in
  the hospital becoming resistant to the
  disinfectants that we use.
• Disinfectants are only used for cleaning the
  environment where patients are know to have
  diarrhoea and when there are outbreaks of
  infection.

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Why disinfectants are not routinely used in
hospitals to clean the wards

• Cleaning can remove 80 contamination on a floor
• Disinfection can remove 95 of contamination on a
  floor
• An hour later, both surfaces are back to their
  former contamination levels
• Environmental disinfection is useful in cleaning
  of a contaminated isolation room or closed ward,
  but has a limited role in any day-to-day ward
  cleaning regime.

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Cleaning at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital

• ISS Mediclean are our current cleaning
  contractors.
• The hospital and the contractors work very
  closely together to ensure a high standard of
  cleaning across the hospital.
• Refer to our PEAT cleanliness scores to see how
  effective we are in keeping the hospital clean