Why don't 'hand and bucket' shower cleaning techniques work?
Our research has shown that following hand and bucket cleaning, organic matter is left behind in the hoses, which goes on to become a food source through a process of necrophagy for pioneering bacteria coming in from the mains supply. Therefore, hand and bucket cleaning processes could actually be exacerbating the problem of microbiological proliferation in shower hoses.
W.E.T offers several possible limitations with the hand and bucket process:
- Too much focus on the shower head instead on the shower hose
- Air pockets during disinfection, preventing full surface contact of the disinfectant
- Pitted surfaces of materials hampering disinfection by shielding biofilms
- Biofilm and organic matter not effectively removed from the shower hose length
- Contact time of disinfectant not sufficient
- Disinfectant chemical not suitable to penetrate thick biofilms
- Bias towards descaling rather than disinfection
- Lack of quality control processes and therefore inconsistent procedures
- Hasty procedures, relying only upon a single chemical disinfection
In addition, having safe methods of working in accordance with COSHH regulations is a significant challenge for healthcare providers.
W.E.T's new production facility can manage the cleaning of 10,000s showers; more economically and effectively than any known process available today, proven to kill 99.9% of bacteria. The Hygiene 20 Shower Management solution is an innovative 6-stage process available for NHS Estates to outsource the cleaning of their showers via a 'collection, clean and return' process. The showers are collected from sites, inspected, bar coded for audit purposes and sent through the 6 stage Shower Management process from decontamination to final pasteurisation and returned to site.
