West Herts Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has admitted there are “significant concerns being discovered daily” with its cleaning contractor Mitie, with a “real risk” further breaches may occur.

For over six years, the trust has contracted cleaning agency Mitie to carry out domestic services at its three hospitals – Hemel Hempstead, St Albans City and Watford General.

But since April, the contract has been cited in the trust’s risk management report as an ongoing risk. The latest report presented at the board meeting on October 3 revealed the risk level has now been raised after further breaches were uncovered.

Incidents include:

– A toilet cleaner for taps found on a renal ward, where patients were suffering pseudomonas (lung infection).

– A cleaner using one cloth for an entire ward and tub of chlorine with no trolley or other equipment during an infection outbreak. The member of staff had already done the same on another outbreak ward using same methods. This was escalated to the cleaning services manager.

– Physically dirty bed spaces in Croxley ward at Watford General Hospital during an outbreak of C diff – a bacteria which causes gastroenteritis – as well as Covid on the ward. This was also escalated to cleaning services manager.

Mitie has another nine months remaining on its contract.

The report, prepared by chief medical officer Dr Mike Van Der Watt, said there was a “risk of cleaning standards deteriorating as the cleaning contract comes to an end”.

Among concerns, there were no trust meetings with Mitie with divisions and the IPC (infection prevent control) manager present to be held to account.

The report added: “After further review with the risk owner, it has been identified that significant concerns are being discovered daily and there is a real risk that further incidents may occur with regard to infections being spread if action is not taken to mitigate and manage.

“The deputy director of IPC (Infection Prevention and Control) has been undertaking numerous reviews of cleaning standards not being met as detailed above.

“There is a risk that further deteriorating of the standards will occur during the remaining months of the contract.”

The trust requires a business case to variate its cleaning contract in order to get adequate cleaning for point-of-use filters (such as showerheads), as well as facial fitting testing of Mitie staff for the latest FFP3 face masks, to prevent pressure sores and other risks.

A Mitie spokesman said: “Mitie carries out thousands of cleaning activities on a daily basis working to current NHS 2021 standards. Ensuring we uphold the highest cleaning standards to support patient care is our priority.

“These isolated incidents have been addressed via colleague refresher training to ensure they are compliant with the appropriate procedures.

“Our cleaning managers attend monthly multidisciplinary meetings with the Trust and will continue to do so moving forward..”

A spokesman for West Herts Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust added: “We demand high standards of cleanliness on all our wards and detailed, daily inspections take place around our sites, multiple times a day.

“Thousands of cleaning tasks are carried out every day by our contractor, working to NHS national standards. However, there will be occasions when work is not completed to the required standard and when that happens, it is flagged, investigated and action taken to address it. The fact it was highlighted in our board paper reflects how we take every incident very seriously.

“Any cleaning issues or concerns are discussed at monthly performance meetings with our contractor, and in future this will include Infection Prevention Control and clinical colleagues.”