Water hygiene involves proactively managing water systems to ensure they remain safe. Not only for drinking but water is used for bathing, swimming, irrigation, cooking, industrial cooling, and steam generation, all of which require differing levels of quality and hygiene.
What do we mean by Domestic Staff and Water Hygiene?
Domestic staff are typically those individuals responsible for cleaning a work environment, including water outlets, such as wash-hand basins and sinks. They should be trained to undertake their tasks, and how their actions could affect water quality and hygiene.
The domestic staff roles and responsibilities vary greatly, but those that may have an impact on water hygiene include;
- Daily cleaning of water outlets such as wash-hand basins, sinks, toilets, baths and showers
- Cleaning of surfaces
- Disposing of wastewater safely
- Mixing and usage of hazardous chemicals
- Responding to emergency spills of body waste or blood
- Daily flushing of infrequently or little-used water outlets during cleaning
- An awareness of their designated area to gain knowledge of room and outlet usage
- Reporting of incidents such as broken water outlets
Each assigned task should have documented procedures based on national standards and guidance, supported by internal organisational documents.
What are the regulations?
There are standards and guidance documents to help domestic staff carry out their cleaning duties, such as the National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2021, which help organisations meet Regulation 15 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. These regulations not only help maintain standards of hygiene but also help to help prevent infections.
Domestic Water Systems and Infections, including Legionella
Such infections could be caused by a more well-known bacterium such as e-coli and MRSA, as well as lesser-known bacterium such as Legionella, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and certain coliform bacteria, which all require careful management.
There is a crossover between domestic water systems and surfaces that are cleaned, which domestic staff need to be aware of. Typically, cleaning will include the tap outlets and the associated basins and sinks, which can present a risk of cross-contamination from a dirty surface to a clean tap.
Using a single cloth to clean a dirty surface such as a toilet or sink followed by the tap outlets can transfer dangerous bacteria or food sources, contaminating the tap. Any bacteria proliferating on the tap could then be transferred from the water system to an individual, either through hand washing, or indirectly via another person, aerosol, or medical equipment.
To combat the risk of transferring bacteria from a dirty surface to a water outlet, domestic staff should always clean from “top to bottom”, starting with the outlet then basin/sink surfaces followed by the toilet. Alternatively, a “one outlet, two cloths” process should be considered, meaning the tap will only be cleaned by a “clean” cloth.
The misuse of outlets is a constant risk that needs attention from domestic staff
Any wastewater such as that from mop buckets or human waste should be disposed of correctly down a sluice, cleaners sink, or toilet, and never down a wash hand basin, as this can contaminate the tap outlet.
Cleaning equipment such as mop heads, or medical equipment should not be stored in wash-hand basins, nor should any medicine such as anti-biotics be disposed down these drains.
Another example of misuse of an outlet by domestic staff can potentially break Water Regulations. The fitting of rubber hoses onto taps used to fill cleaning equipment such as buckets or scrubber driers, will eliminate the air gap required to prevent system contamination through back-siphonage. The fitting of hoses for this purpose can back-siphon dirty wastewater or chemicals from a body of water back into the domestic water system, thus introducing bacteria or hazardous substances.
Flushing water outlets
Cleaning of surfaces, outlets, and fittings plays an important role in minimising bacterial growth and infection. Still, it is increasingly common for domestic staff to play a role in assisting water turnover. Running water from an outlet during the cleaning process assists with water turnover, helping prevent water stagnation and biofilm growth within the pipework. The Department of Health document HTM 04-01 Part B does suggest that water draw-off should form part of the daily cleaning process.
Many organisations not only see this exercise as a helpful addition to the daily turnover of frequently used outlets, but they now rely on this exercise to act as the “infrequently used outlet flushing” regime. This should be managed carefully as the staff member may not have had the required training to undertake this “simple” task. Before this is considered,
- Do they fully understand how the tap works so the cold and hot water systems are flushed?
- Do they know for how long to flush the outlets?
- Can they use a thermometer to note when the water temperatures stabilise to ensure the water has been flushed enough?
- Do they know that all outlets in an “infrequently” used room should be flushed, including toilets, macerators, and sluices?
- Will they move stored heavy equipment to access all outlets?
- Can they fill out the required paperwork and file it appropriately?
- Is this paperwork checked by those in water safety management?
- Do they understand why they are doing it?
HTM 04-01 Part B also suggests that “It is important that any person working on water distribution systems or cleaning water outlets should have completed a water hygiene/Legionella awareness training course so that they can gain an understanding of the need for good hygiene whilst working with water distribution systems and outlets, and of how they can help to prevent contamination of the water supply and/or outlets.”
The issue some organisations may face is how to monitor the competence of those individuals undertaking outlet flushing, especially in an industry susceptible to a high turnover of employees.
Due to these reasons, it may be advisable to undertake infrequently used outlet flushing independently from the cleaning regime, using that as an addition to water turnover, and not to be reliant on it.
Conclusion
It is important to undertake tasks that someone is competent to do. Domestic staff, through the task they are employed to do, “cleaning”, plays a crucial role in maintaining water hygiene, but can also create more problems of their own.
Domestic staff understand how their designated area is used more than any other, so tapping into their knowledge can be vital, and utilising them to undertake additional tasks during their rounds has obvious efficiency based benefits. The added tasks to undertake water hygiene related activities such as flushing, requires careful thought, communication, and management, as skill, knowledge, attitude, training, and experience may not be appropriate to undertake a simple, but very important task.
If you have questions regarding water hygiene and domestic staff or you would like to speak with one of our consultants, please click here to get in touch.
Editors Note: The information provided in this blog is correct at the date of original publication – November 2024.
© Water Hygiene Centre 2024
