Hospital linen takes centre stage in Shakespeare country

The annual Society of Hospital Linen Services and Laundry Managers (SHLSLM) Forum took place on 28 September in Stratford-upon- Avon, where attendees witnessed a variety of presentations and debated the workings of NHS laundry management from take up of RFID and automatic uniform dispensers, smart productivity solutions through to procurement protocols.

The SHLSLM annual professional development forum is a key event for NHS and commercial laundry and linen services professionals as well as a wide range of allied traders.

First to take the podium following the formal opening by LTC Worldwide’s Stuart Boyd, filling in for chair Dave Grimshaw because of illness, was Martin Hartwigsen, sales and marketing manager at Deister Electronic since 2009. Deister is a Germany based company for RFID solutions and since 2015 Hartwigsen has taken on the task to build up its laundry and textile solution program, textag. “Data/analytics is the key to success in the digital age,” he said and asked a series of do-you-know? questions including:

• “How much time is wasted at garment andlinen dispensing points?
• The life cycle of each product?
• What textiles are the slow/fast movers?
• Is workflow and textile circulation good?
• Are wearers exceeding hygiene limits for time of use?”

Coming back to the first question Hartwigsen explained: “If for example a conveyor dispenser needs 35 seconds and a cabinet just 4 seconds you can work out that there are time savings of 31 seconds or close to 2 hours per year and user. These are huge savings by 500 nurses.”

He believes Trusts could eliminate or at least vastly reduce the need for conversations such as those by using the textag system with decentralised dispensing cabinets where access and inventory time are less than 5 seconds. The system also allows for improved workflow and puts textiles wherever needed thereby eliminate walking time.and offers/7 availability with no maintenance.

“You can get 200 articles in one cabinet serving up to 75 nurses and the system prevents ‘bunkering’ (hoarding in lockers) And they can collect and deposit at the same time, no downtime. At the same time it offers real time inventory and loss prevention.

“Every single textile is marked with a washable RFID transponder (which will outlast the life of the textile. Each article at every point is tracked in real time at the hospital or at the laundry or linen rental business,” he says.

Room based solutions are also availabke for bigger hospitals. The system is used in hospitals in Europe and Scandinavia and Hartwigsen cited the example of a hospital in Oslo, Norway where inpatient treatment takes place in three hospitals with a total of 485 beds. Every day, around 700 employees have to be provided with fresh work clothes. The system was installed successfully in 2021.

But who is going to pay for this? The NHS or the linen rental business? And how will it work?

One delegate agreed that although in aperfect world this or similar RFIDbased system is the way forward, he pointed out that things aren’t quite as cut and dried here in the UK as they are in Norway. There, the government wants to know where its property is as the linen is funded by the taxpayer. In the UK different Trusts with different guidelines and differing budgets (all under pressure) means the lost linen problem will continue until such time as the NHS gets its act together and beomes more cohesive.

Jon Hampton of Salisbury Linen Services said: “Martin delivered an interesting paper on the features and benefits of RFID technology used within the healthcare sector.

“On the continent RFID technology within hospitals has been embraced as a core requirement for all services. Inventory management is vastly improved giving greater visibility of stock levels and security of assets.

“Of particular interest was the way in which Martin explained the added value RFID brings to linen services.

“Garment wearers are issued sets based on individual requirements and must return items in order to have access to replacements. This ensures that items are processed in accordance with healthcare standards and reduces the risk of garment misuse and abuse.

“It is widely accepted that some stock attrition will take place with suppliers being supported with charging mechanisms for stock loss and loss of revenue for items that are not returned through the correct process.

“This ensures that the correct stock levels are available for users and linen is returned in the same volumes as delivered for a consistent and sustainable linen service. Within the UK healthcare sector linen providers can all see the benefits associated with RFID technology.

“Many linen providers have already trlalled RFID systems. However there has been a reluctance within the healthcare sector to adopt the same practices. “Let’s hope that in the near future the healthcare sector will see a shift to RFID within linen service provision and reap the same benefits as presented.”

Bundling data

The main Forum programme had undergone one major change since we first published details of the event. Instead of hearing from Ollie Rix for an All Wales Laundry update, the delegates heard a presentation by John C Lee – sales and services manager, UK & Ireland for Bundle Laundry UK, which is supplying management software to many NHS hospital trusts across the UK, including the five sites of All Wales.

The softwafre brings together three packages:

Bundle Connect is a best-in-class laundry management system designed to administer a wide range of processes quickly, efficiently and accurately. The platform is based on cloud technology so it’s available from anywhere and from any device, all with the assurance that it is automatically backed up and secure.

Bundle Track uses UHF RFID technology to provide textile rental companies, healthcare service providers, and workwear firms with up-to-date information on the life and location of textile inventory. You will know where your textiles are with the touch of a button, helping you to optimise textile inventory and deliver operational productivity gains.

Bundle Worx is a real-time production management system that targets a laundry’s largest costs – labour, equipment and utilities, and allows management to deliver a more productive and efficient process.

Children’s Trust

Anna Pangbourne, chief executive at the Fashion & Textile Children’s Trust (FTCT) highlighted the charity’s financial support for families who work in the British fashion and textile sector – this includes laundry sector employees. The charity is already working with a range of laundry companies including Johnsons, Micronclean, CLEAN, Jacksons Workwear and Aberdeen Laundry.

If you would like to find out how FTCT could be supporting your employees, please contact anna@ftct.org.uk

Procurement protocol

Jackie Williams, senior category manager, FM, Property & Business Services, and Alastair Clay, sustainability and social value manager at NHS North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative (NOE CPC) presented on sustainability & social values and how these are applied to procurement and what line managers and their suppliers need to know going forward.

Established in 2007, and wholly owned by the NHS, NOE CPC provides collaborative and bespoke procurement solutions to the NHS and other public sector organisations.

NOE CPC applies category expertise and harnesses the collective buying power of its membership and customers to deliver comprehensive, compliant, innovative solutions that generate value.

Sustainability runs through the whole procurement process. Social value is about making sure that what is bought creates additional benefits for society. Qualitative questions are asked to suppliers at the tender stage. Through the lens of PPN 06/20, these questions seek to unlock the benefits.

The Committee

Dave Grimshaw, national chairman and general manager at Salisbury Linen Services Society secretary, Tim Meadows, Interweave Textiles Supplier representative, Ron McLean, James Walker Textiles National treasurer, Steve Anderton, LTC Worldwide Membership secretary, Ross Weir, HJ Weir Engineering NEC member, Peter White, PR manager, Sam McKay, Salisbury Linen Services For all enquiries about SHLSLM, please email pr@textilemanager.co.ukg