Health Care Environment

City Hospitals Sunderland has established a cleaning specification which is based around the principals of the national standards of cleanliness for the NHS. The aim is to always exceed identified national standards by continually developing the specification through listening to visitors, patients and other key service users.

Matrons and Control of Infection Nurses play a key role in the continued management and delivery of cleaning services. Stringent monitoring and review of performance is an ongoing feature of the service. The domestic team’s underlying aim is to make a significant contribution to offering a clean, safe and hygienic environment for all at City Hospitals Sunderland and to contribute to the prevention of hygiene related infection.

We work in partnership with G4S, who provides the full range of cleaning services at Sunderland Royal Hospital. The service standards are rigorously monitored by City Hospitals Sunderland staff. G4S supports all City Hospitals Sunderland initiatives, and work within all CHS policies and procedures, including continuous staff development. The contract is reviewed for Quality, safety and efficiency on an annual basis, with Healthcare Initial continually investing in service developments.

Health and Safety is the responsibility of the Chief Executive delegated to the Head of Estates who chairs the Trust’s Health & Safety Group.

The Health & Safety Group set annual Trust Milestones identifying key performance targets to be achieved each year. An annual progress report is prepared and submitted to the Trust Board for approval. The Health & Safety Group maintains a strong working partnership with the Health & Safety Executive who regularly visits and audits the Trust and is keen to support the progress that continues to be made.

City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust has been continuously committed to Energy Conservation and carbon reduction over the last 3 decades. A continuous investment has been made into insulation, heating and cooling controls, building management systems and heat recovery arrangements for all the Trust’s buildings.

City Hospitals Sunderland has an enviable record on energy conservation. This achievement has come about by way of substantial investment in plant and equipment, as well as insulation and the normal day to day issues of good housekeeping. Our Energy Centre (including a 1.6MW Combined Heat and Power Unit) has enabled the us to make further and very significant steps in our energy efficiency and a carbon emissions reduction of 3447 tonnes a year. This scheme is in fact the start of our next round of conservation measures to help us reduce our carbon emissions by 10% by 2015, 26% by 2020 and 80% by 2050. These targets have been set for all Trusts in the country and the NHS is keen to demonstrate that it is leading the way by implementing the requirements of the “Reducing Carbon, Improving Health” document.

Clearly, the new Combined Heat and Power Unit alone will not meet all the savings required in the future, however we do have a major Invest to Save programme already fully developed, covering schemes of good housekeeping, plant and equipment, insulation, as well as renewable technology. We will be selecting from this programme to invest in the future and our selection will be prioritised by both carbon and financial savings which will arise from each scheme.

We are also now progressing well with our waste recycling and water conservation and are now taking whatever steps we can to appraise the carbon miles/impact of all the goods and services we buy. Taken together, we believe that we will continue year by year to achieve these nationally set targets which as a Trust we welcome to help make our contribution to minimise global warming and climate change