Healthcare cleaning chief calls for national training and qualifications for cleaners in NHS hospitals

摘要

AHCP national chair, Denise Foster, is calling for the introduction of nationally recognised qualifications and training standards for all NHS cleaning staff. Currently no vocational qualifications are required to work as a cleaner in the NHS. Many hospital cleaners start work with little knowledge or understanding of the complex processes involved. In a keynote speech delivered at the Association of Healthcare Cleaning Professionals national conference she said: "As things stand at present, despite the many well publicised cases, such as Mid-Staffordshire, and the huge advances in the sophistication and complexity of the tools and processes available ... for maintaining cleanliness and hygiene in hospitals, it remains the case that anyone can be recruited as a healthcare cleaner without the need for any training in the increasingly complex protocols and processes involved."