Bacteria

[Andy King]

Hi,
I have been trawling the net trying to find facts about bacteria with regards to the cleaning industry. Unfortunately most articles I have found relate to the food industry.
The type of info I need are things like the average amounts of bacteria found on mopheads, cleaning cloths, hands etc.
How to kill/reduce bacteria growth.
Good practice with regard to cross contamination and storage of equipment.
Any info is greatly appreciated.

Andy

 

[John Bolton]

Hi Andy,

Having looked into a few cleaning cupboards over the years I have been disgusted at the state of the average mop bucket that probably contains enough bacteria to feed the germ warfare industry for the remainder of the century.

Even the simple things such as changing the water, rinsing the mop-head and allowing it to dry would help in the worst cases but we can do very much better than that, especially with products currently available - http://www.cleantalk.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=11658

Basics for reducing cross contamination involve colour coding of mops and buckets, sterilising equipment and adherence to personal hygiene standards such as the use of disposable gloves that are properly discarded once contaminated and certainly before touching anything 'clean'.

 

[Trevor Ives]

Watching a cleaner in a hospital the other week, I was horrified to see the cleaner using a single mop bucket and wringer. About 5 sqmt was run over and a quick slosh in the bucket and on to the next 10 mt. A whole A&E unit was done by the same method.
Surely two buckets should be used with the second being used to retain the dirty water and the first with the cleaning solution in.

The same cleaner emptied the yellow soiled bag into another with gloved hands and then filled the paper towel dispenser with fresh towels( I was going to say clean) with the same gloves on.

A quiet word with the supervisor was met with complete boredom.

UGH

Trevor

 

[Steve Carpenter]

Cleaning allowances for some of the national cleaning contractors looking after Hospital wards run at about 12-24 hours hands on cleaning over a week! With this in mind the mop water is going to get soiled pretty quickly, and should be changed at around 10m2. Realistically is this going to happen?

This is why hospitals are dirty and infections commonplace. Standards have dropped dramacticaly.

They used to be cleaned around the clock when cleaning meant clean! Now, it is a numbers game all about money with patients and visitors lives being put at risk!

You may have seen in the national press that a deep clean using steam was recently carried out. This is all well and good, but the process must be continual, and also used in conjunction with anti-microbial cleaning solutions to be effective.

The industry has everything in place that a Hospital would ever need for cleaning and infection control, so the lack of hygiene control in my opinion is inexcusable and criminal, as many people die through postoperative infections each year!

When I go into this type of cleaning environment with ‘cleaning’ issues the first thing I look at is the cleaners closet. The cleanliness of this room will indicate if proper cleaning practices are in place.

Mop and buckets are normally filthy, so I ask them to rinse the mop until it’s clean…the best I’ve had so far is 4 buckets!

Regards

Steve