The Government will today launch its latest crackdown on poor hygiene to cut the rate of hospital infections, of which the worst is MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus).
Lord Warner, a health minister, will launch a guide for hospitals, setting out how every part of the institutional environment should be cleaned.
Unison welcomed new figures showing improvements to standards of hospital cleanliness, but said for most patients, “seeing is believing”.
The government’s new guidance includes: •a best practice guide on evaluating and awarding contracts so that quality is considered alongside price; •revised national specifications setting out minimum standards of cleanliness; •minimum standards on how often cleaning needs to be done; •a new cleaning manual to reflect changes in cleaning technologies and practices.