Belfast City Hospital, Belfast - 20 October 2011 - Regulation and ...

7.0 Patient Linen
STANDARD 3.0
PATIENT LINEN
Storage of clean linen; handling and storage of used linen;
ward/department laundry facilities.
Linen 5S 6N 7S 10N
Storage of clean linen 88 88 83 88
Storage of used linen 93 78 100 79
Laundry facilities N/A N/A N/A N/A
Average Score 91 83 92 84
7.1 Management of Linen
All wards inspected had effective arrangements in place for the storage
of clean linen. Linen was generally stored in a separate store and was
found to be clean, tidy and free from rips and tears. In Ward 6 North
some linen was stored in an open trolley beside side rooms which are
at times used for isolation purposes. The trolley should be moved or
enclosed to protect the clean linen from airborne contamination.
Some of the reusable linen bags in the linen room of Ward 6 North and
Ward 5 South were torn. In all wards except for Ward 5 South more
attention was required to the cleaning of floors and the removal of
inappropriate items. In Ward 7 South the shelving was also dusty and
there were issues with maintenance and repair.
In Wards 5 and 7 South, good practice was observed in the handling
and storage of used linen, used linen was placed immediately into the
appropriate colour coded bags at the point of use and staff were
observed to be wearing the appropriate personal protective equipment
(PPE) when handling soiled/contaminated linen.
Practices observed in Wards 6 and 10 North required improvement in
the following areas:
• In Ward 10 North staff did not dispose of used laundry at the point
of care, linen was carried through the ward and disposed of into
the linen skip in the dirty utility room. A registered nurse was not
wearing an apron when carrying a bag of infected linen.
• In Ward 6 North two nurses were unaware if water soluble bags
were used for heavily soiled or infected linen and one member of
staff did not remove PPE immediately after handling used linen.
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