Successful and effective running of hospitals and other medical facilities can be imagined as a large stone structure held up by five pillars. Each pillar represents one fundamental principle of cleaning and infection control, and just like any support structure, if any pillar is weakened or missing the entire structure is compromised.

The five pillars are:

1. Isolation and Control Zones – Rooms and areas are divided into different functional risk zones, from low to very high risk. Cleaning and disinfection are key players in maintaining that separation of zones. In isolation zones cleaning and disinfection operations are used to control and prevent the spread of infections
2. Cleaning of Items and Equipment – Critical cleaning and disinfection operations of all items and equipment, particularly patient-contact items
3. Prudent Use of Antibiotics – Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are a big worry to hospitals, so the main message is to be more prudent of the use of antibiotics. This has the knock on effect of relying more heavily on cleaning and hygiene operations
4. Handwashing – The majority of infections are spread by contaminated hands
5. Cleaning of Environment – The cleaning operations of the rooms and surfaces needs to be carefully planned to ensure all priority surfaces are thoroughly cleaned and disinfected

Patients are more susceptible to develop an infection due to the battery of drugs, medical and invasive procedures and indwelling devices that often places the body’s defence systems under considerable stress. When susceptible hosts are coupled with warm moist conditions and the passage of people (staff and visitors) in and out of the place, microorganisms will flourish at every opportunity, leading to a potential infectious outbreak. Nosocomial infections (often labelled as HAI’s – Hospital-Acquired Infections) has serious implications to the health and recovery of the patient, increases both morbidity and mortality, and places significant care and financial pressure on affected healthcare services.

Our comprehensive cleaning and infection control course is intended for routine and deep cleaning in hospitals and other medical centres, and is based on international guidance from the ‘Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’ (CDC) in the US, the ‘World Health Organisation’ (WHO) and the UK ‘NHS National Cleaning Standard’. Our course integrates these standards with high quality cleaning skills training to form one complete training programme, that features both infection control and quality in cleaning right at the heart of cleaning.