Healthcare chief calls for national training for hospital cleaners

A hospital cleaning expert has called for the introduction of nationally-recognised qualifications and training standards for all NHS cleaning staff.

Currently no vocational qualifications are required to work as a cleaner in the NHS and many hospital cleaners start work with little knowledge or understanding of the complex processes involved.

In a keynote speech delivered at the Association of Healthcare Cleaning Professionals (AHCP) National Conference, Denise Foster, AHCP chairman, said: “As things stand at present, despite the many well publicised cases, such as the Mid-Staffordshire scandal, and the huge advances in the sophistication and complexity of the tools and processes available for maintaining cleanliness and hygiene in hospitals, it remains the case that anyone can be recruited as a healthcare cleaner without the need for any training in the increasingly-complex protocols and processes involved.

“I now want to go further than I have before and lay down a challenge to our members, to the NHS, and to the Government. It is my view that no one should be able to work in healthcare cleaning without first achieving some level of basic professional qualification. Only by introducing minimum standards of training and knowledge of infection prevention and hygiene control will the objective of driving up standards of cleanliness in our hospitals, clinics and care homes be achieved."

Members of AHCP are responsible for cleaning and disinfecting high-tech equipment worth millions of pounds in operating theatres and other healthcare settings, often with critically-ill patients close by. And the protocols and equipment used bear little relation to cleaning processes used domestically and in offices and industry.

The comments come as AHCP seeks to revamp its own continuing education, training and development programmes to drive up skill levels in the sector and to encourage more young people to choose healthcare cleaning as a career.

One of AHCP's key objectives is to see the introduction of a nationally-recognised qualification in professional healthcare cleaning.

The association claims the absence of this is a reflection of a culture that fails to fully recognise and reward professional healthcare cleaning for the critically-important role it plays in keeping hospitals clean and free from infection. It says professional training should be available at colleges and universities and no one should be able to work in a hospital without first gaining appropriate vocational training and qualifications.

The speech was Foster's final one as chairman as her term of office comes to an end.