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Leicestershire and Rutland’s community hospitals are to be given an early “spring clean” in a bid to eliminate pathogens from their wards, it has been announced.
The initiative will see cleaners washing walls, steam cleaning furniture and removing fixed equipment, such as radiators, to get to “hidden areas”, according to Leicestershire County and Rutland Primary Care Trust.
Inspections of wards will be carried out after the clean, which is expected to cost £100,000, to make sure they are up to scratch, the trust said.
Director of infection prevention and control, Anna Barrett, said: “We have a good track record of cleanliness and infection control, and we want to keep it that way.
“Our cleaners do an excellent job and this thorough clean programme is in addition to their everyday work – just like spring cleaning at home when we blitz those areas which don’t get done so frequently.
“Some bugs can live for long periods of time and the thorough clean will cover all surfaces on which they could potentially lurk.”
The programme will be launched at Hinckley and Bosworth Community Hospital on 7 January and will be followed by cleans at Ashby Hospital, Feilding Palmer Hospital, Lutterworth, St Luke’s Hospital, Market Harborough, Rutland Memorial Hospital, Melton Mowbray Hospital, Coalville Community Hospital and Loughborough Hospital.
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