Link: FT.com
Hopes that National Health Service trusts will spend more money on cleaning hospitals are "no more than a pipe dream", according to the industry body that represents the biggest providers of outsourced services.
The Business Services Association’s assessment was at odds with Monday’s assertion by John Reid, health secretary, that government policy was "really putting cleaners and cleanliness back at the centre of our campaign against MRSA" – the best known of the superbugs.
Mr Reid was responding to allegations by Unison, the public sector union, that a decline in the number of cleaners used by the NHS was linked to the rise in the incidence of MRSA.
Unison argues that the number of cleaners has fallen because of the introduction of outsourcing.
The BSA also defended the private sector’s record by referring to research published by the Department of Health last year showing "no correlation between the incidences of MRSA, or superbugs, at a trust and whether the cleaning services are provided by a private contractor or not".
