As lockdown restrictions in the UK continue to be eased, more businesses will be allowed to reopen. To ensure the safety of employees, customers and visitors, organisations need to make certain that their premises are regularly cleaned and disinfected, to reduce the risk of this highly contagious virus spreading.
Rigorous hand hygiene practises combined with social distancing are key measures in protecting against cross contamination, combined with mask wearing where appropriate. Regular Coronavirus cleaning may seem simple, but you need an expert to ensure that everywhere is cleaned effectively and safely, especially if there has been a confirmed case of COVID-19 on the premises. Professional Ultra Low Volume (ULV) Disinfection services have become increasingly popular in the last 3 months, as they disinfect large spaces in a short period of time, and hence are time and cost efficient.
The rapid increase in the appetite of the market for disinfection has seen a plethora of new service providers appear, some of them with diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise before the pandemic. Everyone from security companies and engineering service providers to promotional gift companies are offering hygiene services, as they pivot to try to gain new business.
So how do you ensure that you select a reputable company with so many new service providers in the market? How do you know that the team that turns up is using the appropriate chemicals and equipment, and carrying out the treatment in a safe and effective way?
Here are our tips for the things that you should ask:
1. How many years has the company has been in business and how many of those have they been providing hygiene services?
2. Do they have previous experience of bacteria and virus decontamination, and can they provide references or testimonials from medical environments.
3. Understand the treatments they are recommending, the frequency and the rationale for their proposals.
4. What PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) are the hygiene technicians provided with when carrying out a hygiene service?
5. Is their PPE single use? Using the same PPE multiple times increases the risk of cross contamination of pathogens from one premise to another.
6. How are employees trained, and does training include safely putting on and removing PPE to prevent cross contamination?
7. What chemicals will be used and are these proven to be effective against a broad spectrum of viruses, including the Coronavirus family? Many preparations act against bacteria and fungi, not viruses, so be sure to be safe.
8. Will they provide documented risk assessments and method statements for all the work they will carry out?
Gaining answers to these questions will help you choose a reputable Coronavirus cleaning partner, who will help you identify and combat the cross-contamination hot spots in your business, and will follow the necessary procedures to provide a disinfection service which is both effective and safe.
For free advice and information, please call us on 0330 380 4433