Hygiene

St. Luke's Hospital is committed to providing a safe, healthy, clean environment and continually strives to improve the quality of our hygiene services.

The St. Luke's Hospital Hygiene Services committee, who report to the hospital board through the CEO, oversees hygiene services in the hospital.

In a hospital like St. Luke's, hygiene services covers a wide range of areas and activities. These activities are designed to keep our patients and staff safe and protected from the risk of infection.

Keeping the hospital clean in general is probably the most obvious hygiene activity that the hospital carries out. Weekly audits and inspections to check the general cleanliness of the Hospital are carried out in all departments. These ensure that the highest possible standard of hygiene is achieved and maintained.

Another very important factor is hand hygiene and this covers having enough sinks and hand foam dispensers in place in all locations for staff, patients and visitors to use. It also covers training staff to wash their hands before and after dealing with patients and we run courses to show staff how to do this properly.

We encourage all patients and visitors to wash their hands when they enter of leave a ward or patient area. Good hand hygiene practice plays an important role in infection control, as it is an effective means of preventing the spread of infection.

The hospital is very careful about how the laundry services in the hospital are run and in particular have strict controls regarding bed linen.

Decontamination and sterilisation of equipment and the operating theatre is taken very seriously. We adhere to very stringent decontamination standards and guidelines.

The storage, cooking and preparation of food served in the hospital is carried out in line with HACCP requirements.

This means that St. Luke’s Hospital controls the safety of ingredients and supplies entering the Hospital and adheres to good hygiene practice whenever food is involved.

The management of waste is strictly controlled. Waste is separated into clearly labelled risk and non-risk bins and sent for suitable disposal using an approved contractor. Waste is recycled wherever possible.

As part of our commitment to maintaining cleanliness in the hospital, we welcome your views. If there is anything you are unhappy about or would like to bring to our attention concerning these premises, or indeed any aspect of our hygiene services, please feel free to speak to any member of staff.