RCN: Health care staff must have the time and resources to clean

Published: 09 May 2009

The Royal College of Nursing says it is essential that health care staff have the time and space to clean everyday hospital equipment to keep the patient environment protected from health care associated infections. The comments come as an RCN commissioned survey of 2000 nursing staff  shows that one in three nurses do not have access to a dedicated room for cleaning vital hospital equipment, leaving some with no choice but to decontaminate equipment for patients in bathrooms.

RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary, Dr. Peter Carter, said:

"Having the time and space to clean and then store essential everyday hospital equipment such as IV stands, commodes and patient cushions is crucial in keeping patients safe from dangerous infections. It's shocking that some nurses have no choice but to store equipment in hospital bathrooms. People need to recognise that fighting infection is about much more than just hand washing. It's about keeping every part of the patient environment clean all of the time because infections like MRSA and C.diff are still very much a threat."

The RCN is urging the Government to make employers set aside time and money for nurse training so employers can match their promises to tackle infection as a high priority.

"Every UK nurse should have access to training in the latest techniques used to fight these infections, but far too many are denied the opportunity by their employer" said Dr Carter.

The RCN has also called for:

  • new wards to be designed with dedicated decontamination rooms and enough space for safe and clean storage
  • every trust to protect training budgets for nurses
  • every nurse to be given the opportunity to update their infection prevention training
  • every nurse to have access to round-the-clock cleaning services.


Further information

Read the RCN publication Infection prevention and control minimum standards (PDF 2025MB) [see how to access PDF files].

RCN survey

  • 21% of nurses have to store clean hospital equipment in bathrooms due to limited space.
  • 34% of nurses who have responsibility for decontaminating patient equipment have never had any formal training on how to actually do it.
  • 39% of nurses said that cleaning services are not provided in their organisation 24 hours a day
  • 23% of nurses have not undertaken their mandatory infection control training in the past year. One in four said that they had to resort to undertaking infection control training in their own time.