More than 60% NHS nurses have to clean toilets and mop hospital floors over and above their patient care duties reveals a survey of 1,000 nurses and health assistant conducted by Nursing Times.

Over 50% NHS nurses complained about the cleaning services for their ward and 20% said their hospital trusts had made cuts to cleaning services in the last year.

40% nurses had cleaned up a room or bed area after the discharge of an infectious patient and 81% after the discharge of non-infectious patient. 75% of these nurses have received no training for cleaning practices.

Rose Gallagher, from the Royal College of Nursing’s adviser on infection prevention and control, told the Nursing Times, “This is not about saying nurses are too posh to wash. Cleaning in hospitals is not the same as cleaning your own home.”

The cleaning duties for nurses have not been appropriately specified in the cleaning guidelines published last year by the Department of Health, National Patient Safety Agency and the British Standards Institution.

According to Tracey Cooper, president of the Infection Prevention Society, “Nurses are the guardians of the standards of their wards. Cleaning has always been an integral part of what nurses do. The risk comes when there is a lack of clarity about process and who is responsible because then you get things that nobody cleans.”

Andrew Jones, president of the Association of Healthcare Cleaning Professionals, says it is inevitable for nurses to do cleaning in their free time but it was best practice for hospital wards to have a dedicated cleaner.

He said, “When that happens we get better cleanliness standards and a better motivated workforce. Some of the responses would suggest that’s not the case as often as we would want.”

Related:
Only 1 in 4 Brits satisfied with NHS despite government reforms
Patients check and choose: Survey lays bare GP’s performances
Doctors taking industrial action due to pension dispute