Trust staff clean up at awards ceremony

WESTERN Health Trust staff have swept up awards at the British Institute of Cleaning Sciences (BICSc) 50th anniversary awards ceremony in Birmingham on Thursday.

The event attracted entrants from across the UK and Ireland and among the winners were Gina Theobald, a support services assistant in Altnagelvin Hospital, and Sandra Hamilton, a domestic supervisor in Tyrone County Hospital.

Since the BICSc Cleaning Operators Proficiency Certificate programme was introduced to the Western Trust in November 2009, more than 300 Support Services staff have undertaken the training across the Trust.

As a BICSc Accredited Training Organisation the Western Trust picked up the BICSc Award for Excellence in Training and Assessment.

The Trust also won the Doreen Heyes Award in recognition for the uptake and promotion of the BICSc healthcare professionals certification scheme.

Health Minister Edwin Poots offered his congratulations on the awards, saying: “This is excellent news and is testimony of the commitment of the Western Trust to raising hospital cleanliness standards, and also of the hard work and dedication of the staff, who have quite rightly been recognised for their excellence.

“We have a duty to patients to try to eliminate preventable infections in our hospitals and it is essential that the public have confidence in our healthcare facilities. People who use health services in the Western Trust area should take great reassurance from these accolades.”

Western Trust Chief Executive Elaine Way said: “The success at the awards is recognition of the vital role of Support Services staff in healthcare. It is also an endorsement of the Trust’s ongoing commitment to raising standards of cleaning through education.

“Support Services staff can be justifiably proud of the success in the BICSc Awards. The Western Trust would not be celebrating these achievements without the commitment of the Support Services team who set up the training programme and the hard work of staff like Sandra and Gina who have successfully completed the Cleaning Operators Proficiency Certificate.

“These successes in the BICSc Awards reinforce our commitment to raising standards of cleaning in healthcare facilities, instilling confidence in the public who use our services.”