ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Antibiotic resistance has been a growing problem for years and infection prevention in hospitals needs to be improved, writes Dutch correspondent John Griep of VSR. That includes better training in cleaning.

Professional checklists instead of individual scraps of paper, and better training in cleaning. These are just a few of the improvements needed in infection prevention at a number of hospitals to combat antibiotic resistance, according to a Dutch government report. With professionalisation and standardisation being the magic words. Which also happen to be the Association for Cleaning Research, VSR’s core tasks.

Antibiotic resistance has been a growing problem for years. In fact, the Dutch Society of Infection Prevention in Healthcare (VHIG) goes so far as to claim that in the Netherlands, 1,300 people die each year of diseases that could have been prevented in hospitals had there been proper infection prevention.

The aforementioned government report states that a number of hospitals still struggle to clean and disinfect properly (or have it carried out) while - besides reducing unnecessary antibiotics - the implementation of the right infection prevention measures rules out further spread of resistant bacteria.

Time for action. The Dutch government has asked VHIG to take a leading role in this. The government wants standards to be set for measuring the quality of infection prevention and cleaning. And it demands more involvement of VHIG in training and retraining of cleaning staff.

“Because VSR carries out evidence-based research, we can help VHIG with this,” says Frank Veneman, chairman of the VSR Technology Committee. “We can contribute to improving infection prevention by conducting research.” VSR has contacted VHIG.

Veneman continues: “In addition, we have agreed that we share our knowledge with VHIG in developing uniform training, and VSR makes research available. If you combine this with VHIG’s specialised knowledge about hygiene and infection prevention in healthcare, you will lay a solid foundation for the professionalisation effort that the government considers necessary.”

Pillar of infection prevention

The government report describes this as follows: “Cleaning is part of basic hygiene and therefore one of the pillars of infection prevention. Experts in infection prevention should, therefore, make a concerted effort to maintain the quality of cleaning. If the hospital chooses to farm out cleaning to an external company, this means that the infection prevention department must be closely involved in drawing up the package of cleaning requirements” (...) “It is clear that good cleaning must take place, VRE outbreaks could only be contained by hospitals if the gaps in cleaning were addressed.”

The challenges and the intended solutions emphasise what VSR has been advocating for years: cleaning is more than just cleaning a building. Cleaning means: a healthy school, more productive employees, and - as it turns out - saving lives. Professional cleaning protects vulnerable patients in healthcare from infections, which could otherwise have a major impact.