WIREDGOV

NHS moves forward with deep clean

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH News Release (207/0330) issued by The Government News Network on

Health Secretary Alan Johnson today announced detailed regional funding for deep cleaning and confirmed the date by which all NHS hospitals in England will have carried out a deep clean.

In a statement to the House of Commons, the Health Secretary told MPs that all Trusts will have to submit detailed deep clean plans, including costs, to their Primary Care Trusts and Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs). Deep cleaning is one element of a wider range of measures introduced by the Government, which all Trusts need to take to tackle healthcare associated infections and ensure patient safety.

Foundation Trusts will also be invited to agree plans and funding for additional deep cleaning with local commissioners, together with local arrangements for checking the agreed work has been carried out. SHAs will, in turn, be expected to report progress across their regions to the Department of Health.

All ten regions have allocated dedicated funding to support the deep clean. Infection control is a complex problem that needs a range of solutions. There is no single remedy.

Alan Johnson said

"Undertaking a deep clean is a key part of our strategy to improve cleanliness and ensure patients have confidence that their hospitals are safe. The Strategic Health Authorities have now allocated funding so that hospitals can get on with the Deep Clean programme this winter with the aim of completing all deep cleans by the end of March 2008. People want an NHS that is clean and safe, the deep clean programme will help to reassure patients and build public confidence in the NHS"

Progress on the deep clean programme and new details on reporting were unveiled as the results of the latest Patient Environment and Action Team (PEAT) inspection were published by the National Patient Safety Agency.

The inspections measure patient satisfaction with a range of areas including food and aspects of privacy and dignity, as well as cleanliness and the patient environment.

The figures published today also show that in 2007, 98 percent of hospitals were rated excellent, good or acceptable: up from 95 percent in 2006. This is against a more rigorous process in 2007 than for 2006.

Alan Johnson said:

"Patients tell me that they are concerned about standards of cleanliness in the NHS and their concerns are my concern. I am pleased to say that hospitals have made progress. This year's PEAT inspection results show only a handful of hospitals rated 'poor' or 'unacceptable' for the patient environment."

"This is good progress, but every hospital in England should aspire to the level of the best. Excellent standards are what patients and staff want and should expect from our NHS"

Notes to editors

1. Further information of the funding available to support the deep clean of the NHS at regional level was provided to MPs. The table below outlines the spending intentions of each SHA to support the deep clean.

SHA                             2007/08 Expenditure intentions £m
      North East                      3
      North West                      6.4
      Yorkshire and Humber            5
      East Midlands                   7
      West Midlands                   9.9
      East of England                 4.2
      London                          8
      South East Coast                5.4
      South Central                   3.5
      South West                      5.1
      Total                           57.5 

2. The headline results of the PEAT inspections are available on the NPSA website at http://www.npsa.nhs.uk/peat and are summarised below..

PEAT inspections cover food and aspects of privacy and dignity, as well as cleanliness and the environment. All areas have shown improvement this year.

The table below set out this years scores with 2006 scores in brackets.

% Hospitals  Excellent  Good       Acceptable Poor       Unacceptable
      Patient      14%(14.2%) 49%(49.8%) 35%(31.0%) 1.5%(4.7%) 0.5%(0.3%)
      Environment 

3. The deep clean programme announced by the Prime Minister in October 2007. On the 1st November, the NHS received guidance on what a deep clean might entail. The details of the deep clean will be finalised locally.

All Trusts will submit costed deep clean plans to their lead commissioners, who will monitor performance against this plan, as per normal performance management arrangements. SHAs will take an overview as to progress across their area and will report to the Department of Health.

[ENDS]