Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 11th April 2024 Issue no. 1109

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Nottingham hospitals' cleaning contractor slated for poor cleanliness

The contractor responsible for cleaning Nottingham's hospitals should be sacked for its "abysmal" management, Healthwatch Nottinghamshire has told the BBC. Healthwatch raised concerns over an alleged rat sighting, dirty plates and overflowing bins at the Queen's Medical Centre and City Hospital. It said Carillion, which provides the cleaning services, has shown a "poor record of cleanliness".

Martin Gawith, who chairs Healthwatch Nottinghamshire, said: "Carillion has shown that management has been abysmal with a poor record of cleanliness. They should hand the contract back."

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust has allegedly been demanding urgent improvements from Carillion for months, after a series of problems were recorded.

Some nursing staff were cleaning up themselves because they were not satisfied with the work done by the contractor, reports the BBC. There were also reports of overflowing bins and washing up being left overnight. In August, a rat was seen in a ward kitchen at Nottingham City Hospital, leading to the kitchen's closure for deep cleaning.

The Trust believes Carillion's biggest problem is that it has insufficient numbers of cleaners; saying that there is a shortage of about 70 cleaning staff.

In a statement, Carillion said: "We have put in place an improvement programme, which has resulted in no shortages with equipment. Additional staff are being recruited and we hope the health scrutiny committee will appreciate the improvements which have been achieved."

NUH has been presenting its evidence on Carillion's poor cleaning standards to a local council health scrutiny committee.

Carillion won the five-year contract for cleaning, laundry and catering services in 2014.
In July, hospital bosses said the cleaning contract could be terminated if standards did not improve.

Image: Dirty sackholder, courtesy of UNISON union members

Ed: Nothing was said in the report about budgets... whether, for example they'd been cut by the Trust (as sometimes happens) or indeed, whether Carillion was struggling to make the contract pay, following recent big rises in the Living Wage, so please remember the old adage: 'if anything goes wrong, blame the cleaner' and be aware that there are two sides to every story...

29th September 2016