Meeting the New NHS Cleaning Standards for the Medical Sector

Any business operating in the medical sector will be acutely aware that NHS England’s National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness  have been updated and that the November 2022 deadline for compliance, is almost here. To save you time, we have identified the key requirements outlined in this document.

Five key requirements for meeting the NHS standards of cleanliness:

• A fully compliant cleaning specification
• A commitment to cleanliness charter
• A responsibility framework
• A range of three different types of audits
• Star rating certificates on public display

Supporting documents you will need to meet these requirements, can be found here.

How can Rapid Clean help you meet the new NHS cleaning standards?

We have been assisting the medical sector in meeting CQC standards for 21 years; it looks likely that the NHS cleanliness standards will form part of the CQC inspections going forward.

Although we can’t promise to step in and take all of this responsibility away from you (the government guidelines state that medical practices need to be responsible for their own audits, drafting in someone externally where necessary), we can make your life easier in certain areas:

1. Auditing - providing evidence of regular audits can feel overwhelming if this is not something you are used to. The new standards require 3 different audits (technical, efficacy, external). Whilst the guidelines state that each site is responsible for their own audits, we are in the process of updating our auditing system for the medical sector and this will go some way in assisting you. As part of our usual service, we also carry out periodic spot checks which are undertaken by our Health and Safety and Compliance Manager, as part of monitoring, measurement, analysis and the demonstration of continual improvement in accordance with ISO9001, CHAS and ISO14001.

2. Detailed Cleaning Schedule – the ‘commitment to cleanliness charter’ requires specific tasks to be carried out routinely and evidenced. Our Rapid daily cleaning schedule will help with this and can be adjusted to meet the requirements. We have thoroughly researched what is being required and have adjusted our cleaning schedules accordingly, to include the FR category.

3. Medical Sector Expertise – we understand the necessity for cleaning operatives to be diligent in practices and for the correct procedures such as cross contamination, hazardous waste disposal etc, to be evidenced, and followed at all times.

We are committed to assisting our customers in meeting the requirements of the cleanliness charter and responsibility framework. As your cleaning provider we can help you create a fully compliant cleaning specification. This will support regulatory audits (you will need to implement compliant audits yourselves as specified in the guidelines), as well as your achievement of the star ratings set out by the NHS Healthcare and Cleanliness Standard.

We fully understand the requirements placed upon our customers in the medical and social healthcare sector to comply with the NHS Healthcare and Cleanliness Standard, as well as the CQC regulations. If you would like to discuss how Rapid Clean could assist you in becoming fully compliant, please complete the form below.