The CSSA sent a letter protesting about a DoH press statement on 17 January, which revealed that, from April, ward sisters can recommend that payments be withheld from contract cleaning firms that do not meet standards.
In the letter, Michael Bizley, director general of the CSSA, writes: 'This implies once more that cleaning companies are the only organisations that may not be achieving expected standards.'
The letter notes: 'On 19 April 2000, following your speech to the Royal College of Nursing... you implied, and the press blamed, contractors for dirty hospitals, which is far from the case.'
'It would be helpful if statements were factually correct and avoided inferences perceived by the public at large that it is only the contactors who are providing unacceptable standards. You know this to be untrue.'
The letter refers to results from a study last summer, where NHS cleanliness was assessed on a traffic light grading system, red being poor.
'You will find the majority of those hospitals being cleaned by contractors are in the green and amber areas; the majority of red hospitals are being cleaned by in-house operations.'
Commenting on the row, Geoff Callan, chairman of the Health Facilities Management Association, said: 'It is about how well you manage things at the end of the day. The bottom line with any contract is that if it is not performing there are going to be penalties.'
Callan agreed there should be a way of monitoring the performance of in-house standards.
Source
The Facilities Business
