Introducing the Best Practice Guide for Linen Services at the society's annual conference in Blackpool, Lancashire, on April 24, Ian Hargreaves told members and delegates that the SHLSLM is keen to establish minimum standards for the purchase, processing and storage of linen used within the NHS and healthcare sector.
The guide is aimed at three distinct groups - those based at ward and department level; those employed within a laundry by a linen services provider; and those responsible for monitoring and agreeing service provision.
The guide will provide a basis for developing specifications for a contract or service level agreement and a standard against which services can be benchmarked. It will be part of an ongoing performance management process and provide a framework for auditing.
Meanwhile, the publication by the TSA of an industry-wide guideline on the wearing and laundering of nurses' uniforms is “imminent”, according to Murray Simpson, the association's chief executive. Speaking during the Blackpool conference, he added: “We will do what the Department of Health frankly failed to do last year.”
The TSA has repeatedly called for clear national standards in this area, but the Department decided last year that implementation of a uniform policy should be left to individual Health Trusts, and that each Trust should determine its best working practices.
Full details will appear in our June 2008 edition.
