Man on a Mission!

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Press 2009

Press Releases 2009

Man on a Mission!

Written by Communications Team

William Britton is on a mission! Some people may think his cause a little unusual but he has an answer for that! He is passionate about housekeeping – and for him HOUSEKEEPING comes in capital letters!

William is Hotel Services Manager at the Ashford and St. Peter's Hospitals NHS Trust. Since food and hygiene are often joint top-of-the-list in importance for patients, the Surrey Herald has decided to start-off its regular look inside the Trust series with William and his job.

Said William: “Every aspect of housekeeping has an impact on a patient’s stay in hospital: good food; fresh linen; clean wards; and well trained staff are just a few of the things that we hope they will remember when they are well enough to go home.

“Our staff know that they are playing a valuable part in supporting the work of the medical, surgical and nursing staff in caring for the health of the patient, and they take a great pride in their work. Whatever job they have hygiene, cleaning, infection control is uppermost in their daily work.

“Right now we are well on target to completing our annual deep clean for 2008-2009, which we run from September to September, and we have a specialist in-house team who carry this out. The programme is really intensive and includes washing the walls, stripping floors and sealing them where we need to, washing the ceiling tiles, and removing and cleaning items such as light fittings, radiators and air vents.

“We also move all the beds and other furniture out of the areas being cleaned to make sure it is thorough and use hydrogen peroxide machines which fire a fine mist to get into all the nooks and crannies, killing any remaining harmful organisms.”

The highlight of a patient’s day can often be the food. All patients select their meals at the point of delivery from heated trolleys plugged in each ward bay or near side rooms. Patient service assistants, trained in food hygiene and presentation offer the patients their choice and nursing staff take the food to each patient and help with feeding, where necessary. And, we have a “Red Tray” system for patients who nurses know need help with meals. The nurses also know who is on a therapeutic diet such as low sodium, gluten free, or diabetic and ensure they get the correct choice. A large range of drinks is served seven times a day, and if a patient misses out on a meal for some reason we can provide hot or cold food from the ward kitchens.

Said William: “The services we provide are more complex than people might think, and certainly very important to our patients. It would take a whole paper to detail what is involved, which we can’t do here! But, I can say I am proud of our staff and I know they take a pride in what they do – morning, noon and night, 365 days a year.”

Facts:

Each ward has its own cleaner

Back-up rapid response cleaning team are on call 24/7

Disposable bed curtains introduced

Microbial-coated window blinds installed for more effective cleaning

seat sanitisers in toilets

Each ward has its own daily supplied linen cupboard

Hospital gowns - up to size 1O XL

10,000 pieces of laundry handled daily

520,000 meals served annually which includes breakfast, lunch and supper

22,000 loaves of bread per annum

226,300 pints of milk per annum