Hillbrush Hygiene Anti-Microbial Cleaning Tools – a solid defence for reducing the risk of cross contamination and infections
Providing the best possible healthcare is always at the top of every healthcare providers list, and this includes ensuring that any potential health risks are effectively minimised and controlled. Throughout the healthcare industry there are significant risks from infectious bacterial cross-contamination, especially in shared living spaces such as care homes and hospitals. The risks are magnified in facilities for older and frail people where cleaning regimes are not strictly controlled. This can lead to the spread of potentially deadly pathogenic bacteria, such as Campylobacter, MRSA, E.coli, Legionella, Listeria and Salmonella amongst others. Implementing and adhering to good hygiene cleaning practices is an essential part of preventing the spread of harmful pathogens. The healthcare industry spends millions of pounds on cleaning chemicals and equipment but how effective is that cleaning equipment in preventing the spread of harmful bacteria? Does it have the ability and is it of the right design to provide the defence and protection that is required to support a hygienic environment for patients? Cleaning equipment is often used over large, varying surface areas and can collect and spread contamination. In the food manufacturing industry alone, data has shown that 47% of the cleaning equipment used can be tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes which demonstrates that cleaning equipment can be a major collection point for pathogens. Parallels can also be drawn for the healthcare and care home industry where food preparation is a daily occurrence. Incorrect storage, failure to replace old or faulty cleaning tools, and poor design of cleaning equipment are all key factors contributing to potential microbiological hazards. Cleaning should reduce the risk of bacteria not contribute to the loading on the equipment and the environment. Using clean equipment that is fit for purpose and incorporating effective sanitising of equipment between uses is one line of defence to prevent bacterial contamination, but a second line of defence that is increasing in popularity and reduces the threat of cross-contamination is the use of anti-microbial cleaning tools. Anti-microbial cleaning tools can provide round the clock antimicrobial product protection. ‘An antimicrobial is an agent that kills microorganisms or stops their growth’ Anti-microbial products are used in many environments such as hospitals, care homes, schools, gyms and offices and with the increasing awareness of the need to improve hygiene levels, the demand for anti-microbial cleaning tools is growing. Hillbrush Anti-Microbial hygienic tools effectively inhibit the growth of bacteria on the surface of the product with the help of Biomaster. The Biomaster silver-ion additive is infused into the cleaning tools and binds to the cell wall of the bacteria, interfering with the enzyme production, disputing growth and therefore stopping the bacteria producing energy. The cell DNA is interrupted stopping replication which prevents the growth and spread of harmful microbes. The anti-microbial additive is not a replacement for good cleaning practices and effective manual cleaning is still key, but by cleaning with anti-microbial cleaning tools bacterial survival on the cleaning equipment is reduced because Biomaster is constantly working in-between cleans. Independent test data has shown up to a 99.99% reduction of harmful microbes within just 2 hours of cleaning on the tools. The use of cleaning chemicals alone is recognised nowadays as not always the most effective method and only offers a limited level of defence, the combination of manual cleaning with effective chemicals using anti-microbial cleaning tools can provide a solid defence for reducing the risk of cross contamination and infections whilst providing a safe and hygienic environment for patients. For more information visit our website www.hillbrush.com/amor email info@hillbrush.com.
Borough Care Providing Person Centred Dementia Support
September is World Alzheimer’s Month, with World Alzheimer’s Day falling on 21 September each year. September 2018 marks the 7th World Alzheimer’s Month, which is an international campaign to raise awareness and challenge the stigma that surrounds dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia among older adults. It is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. Borough Care, the largest not for profit provider of care for older people in Stockport, has over 20 years of experience supporting people with dementia. Nine of Borough Care’s eleven homes are specialist dementia care homes. The company offers dementia support through a range of services, including residential care, active recovery and day care provision. Mark Ward, CEO at Borough Care, says: “At Borough Care we believe good dementia care is about creating a positive and flexible culture that supports and respects people. We’re committed to understanding the uniqueness of the people affected by dementia and the individual support they and their families need. We provide high quality services and well thought out physical environments that are comfortable and help people with dementia live independently, and in the least restrictive way possible. We are committed to providing care and support that is positively person centred and that reflects the long term, progressive nature of dementia.” All Borough Care employees, in all roles, have access to ongoing dementia training, education and support. Borough Care’s Dementia Care Champions, supported by Alzheimer’s Society, also ensure workforce development and deliver additional training to both staff and families. Borough Care’s homes are designed so residents living with dementia can enjoy a homely, comfortable environment, with access to safe outdoor space. A number of the homes have been designed as small villages, with residents having their own real-life cafes, shops, cinemas or pubs to visit – giving a real sense of living in a community. Globally, dementia is one of the biggest challenges society faces, with nearly 50 million people living with dementia worldwide. In the UK, there are currently around 850,000 people with dementia. Dementia prevalence rates are higher in Stockport than the national average, with over 4,000 people in the borough estimated to suffer with the disease.
Golden wedding anniversary for Chester-le-Street couple
CHAMPAGNE corks were flying at a Chester-le-Street care home in celebration of a resident’s golden wedding anniversary. Pelton Grange Care Home resident Dennis Fullerton and his wife Margaret were surprised by staff when they returned from an anniversary lunch to banners and flowers. Staff also presented Margaret with a bouquet and Dennis with a bottle of whisky – before offering the happy couple glasses of bubbly to toast their 50 years together. The pair married in September 1968 at Byermoor, near Stanley, County Durham, spending their wedding night in London and honeymoon in Austria. Dennis was a uniform inspector for the Northumbria Police, before retiring and eventually moving into Pelton Grange Care Home in March 2017. Home manager Chris Hogan-Hind said: “50 years of marriage is an amazing milestone, so we decided to throw a little surprise to mark the special occasion. “Dennis and Margaret are such a lovely couple and we were delighted to see them toast their special day with a glass of bubbly.” Pelton Grange Care Home is part of the Hill Care Group. For further information visit www.hillcare.net.
Bum bag brigade helping care home residents
A BUM bag brigade is marching around a Northumberland care home helping residents with dementia feel calmer and more sociable. Staff at The Oaks Care Home, in Blyth, have taken to wearing the 90s fashion accessory filled with items to help the residents reminisce. Each bag has a set of vintage playing cards with different pictures, including animals, flowers and Christmas icons. They also carry two small pots of fragranced oils, such as coconut, chocolate, candy floss and toasted marshmallows. As care staff conduct their daily duties, they can stop and show residents a card or offer a fragrance, which has been particularly beneficial for those living with dementia. The images and smells evoke memories which helps to reduce anxiety and improve sociability and mood. Ann Mielnik, home manager at The Oaks Care Home, on Durban Street, came up with the idea and nicknamed the staff the “Butterfly Bum Bag Brigade”. She said: “Butterflies are colourful, can flit around a room or be still, can change the moment and can brighten a second in someone’s life. “That’s the idea behind the bum bags – to provide a spontaneous opportunity to improve a resident’s day with a simple gesture. All of us can change someone’s day through small things. “All of us will have had moments in life when we felt bored, lethargic, aimless and lacking in energy and these very simple bags help to change this. “As well as the Bum Bag Brigade during the day, we’re looking at night shift staff carrying lavender sprays to promote a restful sleep or possibly packs of biscuits for a midnight snack.” The Oaks Care Home is part of the Hill Care Group. For further information visit www.hillcare.net.
Essential Healthcare Solutions get tough on cross infection prevention with Miele
Eradicating potentially harmful bugs such as C.diff, MRSA and Norovirus is just one of the tasks Essential Healthcare Solutions performs daily. As a specialist provider in medical equipment and service, the Yorkshire-based organisation supplies, decontaminates and services Dynamic Air Mattresses for the NHS and care homes throughout the UK. The mattresses are specifically designed for the needs of hospital patients and care home residents, to alleviate areas of pressure and provide comfort for those who spend long periods of time in bed. When the mattress is no longer required by a patient, it is returned to Essential for specialist cleaning, decontamination, servicing or repair. Essential Healthcare Solutions can have in excess of 300 of its mattresses in just one hospital. The organisation cyclically processes equipment delivery, collection for decontamination and redelivery to the site. It is pivotal that each stage of this process is managed efficiently, and that laundry processes are consistently carried out to the required high standards to ensure the decontamination process has been carried out effectively. Helping to raise standards At Essential Healthcare Solution’s decontamination centre, mattresses go through a wash-based disinfection process to remove any traces of potential contamination. Due to the nature of the equipment it launders, compliance with the Water Regulations Advisory Scheme (WRAS) to provide backflow protection is a legal requirement. In order to meet the Department of Health’s standards for controlling infection in laundry, the correct choice of machinery is key for this rigorous process. Mattress care during the wash cycle is always a priority for Essential. Ensuring all laundry processes meet industry regulations; Essential created specific internal processes to handle large volumes of specialist mattress decontamination with high temperature requirements. Essential turned to local commercial laundry equipment service provider – JTM Service – to equip its decontamination centre. Extensive experience working with the NHS and Care Homes meant JTM Service understood the pressures Essential faced handling large loads quickly and effectively, while mitigating cross infection risk and delivering outstanding cleaning performance. The rigorous demands placed on the machines show it is vital the recommended equipment is economical, energy efficient, robust, reliable, and built to last. JTM recognised that Essential’s specialist requirements are most effectively met by Miele’s high performance and quality, commercial washing machines. JTM installed two Miele PW814 Performance Plus machines which not only ensure Essential’s strict hygiene requirements for safe disinfection are met, but are also WRAS approved. With 14kg capacity, the machines are able to easily manage the size and speciality of the loads that Essential launder daily. A NeQis System supplied by JTM is in use. This independent, third party, validation system provides real time records and reports to verify that each wash cycle has met the required decontamination standards. Up to the job JTM installed two Miele PT8403 Professional dryers with capacity equal to the washing machines, ensuring the mattresses are thoroughly dried. Essential benefits from the longevity assurance that comes with the Miele brand. Miele machines are fully tested post build to last 30,000 hours. Over ten years, that is – eight hours use a day, 365 days per year. Miele machines’ drum technology is gentle on fabric and prevents damage to the external fabric of the mattresses. Thomas Owens, managing director, Essential Healthcare Solutions said: “The JTM team understood the challenges we face when it comes to laundering large items and our need to ensure our processes meet rigorous decontamination standards.” “JTM was not only able to meet our demands in terms of finding us the best equipment for the job, but was also able to offer us the best ongoing support and maintenance so that we remain operational at all times.” Building work is underway to significantly expand the decontamination facilities, Essential will be looking to JTM and Miele again to equip its new facility to the same high standard. The new, larger decontamination centre will help the medical equipment provider make a positive impact to the quality of people’s lives while continuing to help raise the standard of care.
Makaton Choir Appeals For New Platforms
A Shrewsbury-based choir whose performances focus on signing rather than singing is appealing for an invitation to perform in front of a new audience in the region. Kim Walshaw, a qualified Makaton trainer who works as locality manager for care-provider Regard and has launched a signing choir for colleagues and the people they support, said: “You only have to watch our choir to see how much the members love what they are doing, and their performances spread such joy. “We’d love people to contact us with suggestions for inclusive local events where they would like us to perform.” Makaton is a language programme that uses signs and symbols to help people communicate. It is designed to support spoken language, so the signs and symbols are always accompanied by the spoken (or sung) words and not used as replacements. Kim Walshaw said: “Our Makaton choir is fully inclusive of people with all abilities-friendly choir whose focus is having fun and feeling fully empowered. “It’s well known that singing is good for you but combining signing with singing enriches the whole thing. “When we sing along to the music and sign simultaneously we are expressing our personalities and showing how we feel – all with our hands – and it’s a tremendously rewarding experience.” Kim started the choir last spring. Their first performance was at the ‘Celebration Of Success’ evening organised by Regard as a platform for recognising the achievements of the people with learning difficulties, mental health needs and autism they support in the Shrewsbury area. The song of the night was Christina Perri’s A thousand years, (see https://vimeo.com/278641135/af231b5d2d) which earned rapturous applause, and the evening’s awards included certificates and gifts for every choir member. At their follow-up performance – a charity tea-party raising funds for Shelter – they “brought the house down” with their rendition of This is me from the hit film The Greatest Showman. Charlotte Turner, deputy service manager for Merrington Grange, where some of the choir members live, said: “Kim seems to have started something unstoppable. Choir members can’t get enough of it and are also enjoying new friendships made within the group. “We’re always sensitive to individual needs – for example Matty, one of the young men we support, finds performing in front of an audience a real challenge and even though he wants to join in, it makes him anxious. “We solve this by having me sit right in front of him – facing him so that he can focus on my familiar face – and this enables him to perform with minimum stress. He’s always so delighted with himself when he’s finished – it’s just great to see what a sense of achievement signing with the choir gives him.” The Makaton Choir is currently practising new songs for a planned Halloween event, including the classic Diana Ross and The Supremes hit Stop in the name of love and Reach (for the stars) by S Club 7. The Regard Group (www.regard.co.uk) is the UK’s third largest private care-provider, caring for more than 1,300 people, with a dedicated staff of over 2,600 people at 164 specialist residential services, supported living services, outreach support and day resource centres across the UK. The group supports people with learning disabilities, mental health needs and acquired brain injuries nationwide and is a leading advocate for improving people’s life chances by developing their personal skills and broadening their horizons. Local organisations, clubs or churches who would like to explore the possibility of having the Makaton Choir perform at one of their events can email Kim.Walshaw@regard.co.uk .
Borough Care Supporting Macmillan World’s Biggest Coffee Morning
Borough Care, the largest not for profit provider of care for older people in Stockport, is supporting the Macmillan Cancer Support World’s Biggest Coffee Morning on Friday 28 September. Each of Borough Care’s eleven homes will be hosting a coffee morning for residents, their families, healthcare professionals and staff. Staff at Borough Care’s head office will also be getting in on the act by bringing in cakes for their own fundraising coffee money. All the money raised will go to Macmillan Cancer Support. Dr Mark Ward, CEO at Borough Care, says: “The Macmillan Coffee Morning is a great opportunity for residents to socialise with their families and friends, while raising money for such a worthwhile cause. Cancer affects so many people, either directly or indirectly, and our residents are always pleased to be able to do their bit to support Macmillan at the annual Coffee Morning.” The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning is Macmillan’s biggest fundraising event for people facing cancer. The first Coffee Morning took place back in 1990 and since then the annual event has raised over £200 million. Borough Care provides residential and day care, as well as active recovery and short-stay respite services, for the residents of Stockport and the wider Greater Manchester area. www.boroughcare.org.uk
Care home gets keener fuel price by going greener
The Government’s Clean Growth strategy may seem like bad news for off-grid rural care homes as they face phasing out heating oil in favour of lower carbon fuels. The sector is already being squeezed by rising costs and local authority spending cuts – but a care home in the Cotswolds has shown the way to go greener and save money at the same time, working with LPG supplier AvantiGas. Stinchcombe Manor is a family-run care home housed in a beautiful Grade II listed manor house, built in 1836 near Dursley, in the heart of the Cotswolds. But when Dominic Carden bought the home two years ago, four antiquated, inefficient and unreliable oil-fuelled boilers were among the many problems he inherited. Chui Green, Technical Sales Manager at AvantiGas, worked closely with Mr Carden to deliver the solution that would strip out the outmoded oil boilers, replacing them with a clean, modern, lower-carbon LPG system. The package included all maintenance and required no up-front payment, yet repayments still came in lower than the previous fuel bills alone. “It’s very difficult, in this day and age, to believe you can get the kind of deal that we’ve done,” said Mr. Carden. “Yes, obviously I am paying for it (the capital cost) over a period of time but yes – it was difficult to work out that I didn’t have to find the initial outlay straightaway. If I’d have had to do that, I probably wouldn’t have had it done this year.” Mr Carden is repaying the capital costs of the new system with its three boilers, three one-tonne LPG tanks and pipework, over the 10-year contract period as part of his regular fuel payments, with a maintenance contract included in the overall monthly price. The total still came in below what he was paying before just for fuel.A break-out clause in the bespoke agreement also gives Mr Carden the option to pay off the capital cost early if he’d prefer to. There was no doubt that the care home’s unreliable and inflexible heating and hot water system was long past its best: “The previous system was really old – I wouldn’t ever switch the oil boilers off, because the company that used to service and maintain them said: ‘Don’t switch them off, because they’re so old and dilapidated you might not get them going again.’” He also had to keep the central heating boilers on all-year-round to provide hot water, as separating the two applications was not possible: “It was not at all good for economy – especially in the summer. I had to keep them going full blast. But hopefully this is going to be a major improvement for us.” The three modern LPG boilers are now installed in one central boiler house – the old oil boilers were spread across three locations – and are linked in a ‘cascade’ format so that when the heat requirement is low, particularly in the summer, just one boiler can do all the work and there’s no longer a colossal waste of unwanted heat. The new set-up also powers ovens and tumble driers which were previously fuelled by LPG cylinders. Mr Carden no longer has to find storage space for cylinders, bulk gas is cheaper too, and he doesn’t have to think about when to order fuel as his tanks are topped up automatically: “I’m really pleased with the way things have gone, really happy. It was a major job but it’s running well now and everybody is seeing the improvements that I’m making. And hopefully come summer I’ll see even more benefits because I’ll be able to switch my boilers off and regulate it much more.” Chui Green of AvantiGas said the new system would be better for Stinchcombe’s residents as well as for its owner: “Selecting a more efficient fuel or upgrading the boiler ensures cheaper running costs – all the more important when budgets are squeezed and the cost of delivering quality healthcare is going up. Controlling running costs enables the home to be more competitive while improving the comfort of its residents. “With care homes, the need for consistent, comfortable and controllable heat is paramount, because of the vulnerability of the residents. And with off-grid homes in older or listed buildings it’s often harder to ensure efficiency due to factors such as solid walls, limited insulation etc. “Stinchcombe Manor is now ahead of the game, having converted from a high-carbon fuel that is on its way out to a cleaner, more economical, lower-carbon system that promises to serve them effectively far into the future.” To contact AvantiGas Technical Sales Manager Chui Green, call her on 07718 602841 or email chui.green@avantigas.com
Care home residents befriend teens through citizenship scheme
YOUNG people have been welcomed by a Tyneside care home – to help them build social skills and become top citizens. Residents at Waverley Lodge Care Home, in Lemington, made unlikely friends with the teenage volunteers, aged 15 to 17, as part of Newcastle United Foundation’s National Citizenship Service (NCS.) Young people on the scheme took on gardening, kept residents company and provided entertainment including games and activities throughout the summer. Michelle Park, activities coordinator at Waverley Lodge Care Home, in Bewick Crescent, said: “The students were so enthusiastic and brought a touch of magic to the lives of the residents. “They all worked so hard – digging out roots of old trees and preparing the ground for replanting with flowers. “They baked, played carpet bowls and bingo, and even supported our residents with their armchair exercises. “A deep bond was formed with one resident in particular. As a gift, they bought her a giant teddy bear – she loves it to pieces and it’s now pride of place in her bedroom. “We can’t thank the young people enough for the time they spent at the home with the care residents.”
