James Tapster is the man whose team is tasked with delivering NTH Solutions’ compliance service to primary care. He recently sat down to chat about the compliance service and also what he’s been up to…
Hi James, thanks for sitting down to chat.
It’s a welcome break Dan!
I can imagine… So how did you get involved in supporting primary care with compliance to the National Standards?
Well as soon as I read the updated National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness I realised that it would cause real anxiety for primary care organisations who needed to comply, especially given the stress levels in those environments already in the current climate. I was delighted when NTH Solutions sprang into action to offer a support service and offered to help facilitate it with the help of our team of environmental auditors.
We definitely appreciated your enthusiasm, I must admit! What do you think caused that anxiety you mentioned?
I think at first glance the mandatory requirements feel like a lot of work, and it’s just more change imposed on services that are already under pressure. But actually it’s just a chance to evidence the good practise those services are already doing in terms of cleanliness. Things like giving your cleaning specification an MOT and making sure it has everything it needs, or ensuring you’ve considered all the rooms on your site and not just the patient-facing ones. Once you start to break it down and follow our process it becomes a lot more manageable.
I think a lot of people seek real assurance that they are following the correct protocols by having this confirmed by a decontamination expert – and of course the majority of the leg work is completed for them too.
Absolutely. Our team is responsible for delivering those initial visits where we go round a site then create a compliant cleaning specification, and all sites whether it be a GP in Gateshead or a Dentist in Devon have given us a warm welcome. I think patients are going to appreciate it too.
How so?
Well there’s the element of transparency that’s baked into the new Standards. If I’m a patient or I’m taking my Mum to the doctor’s for example, I can see a star rating and a charter on the wall so I instantly feel confident that I’m in a safe, clean environment. It’s a bit like a seeing the food hygiene rating in my local restaurant.
How does your team work alongside staff on site? Obviously it has to be quite a collaborative process.
So we are customer-focused – we explain what we’re doing throughout each visit and we take time to share our feedback and have those conversations to help sites understand the Standards and comply with them. It’s a really positive, productive team effort, and we really feel as though we’re dovetailing into these organisations and helping them in a targeted, accessible way. And that’s backed up by the feedback we’ve had so far from the first intake of sites.
You’ve talked about the initial visits, but how have you found the follow-up technical audits?
To be honest, most sites are already doing well in terms of cleanliness so we’ve been mainly focused on building up the documentation and evidence base around that as well as providing some targeted recommendations, and issuing those coveted star ratings! I think the managed audit schedule is really helpful for sites too; from a logistical point of view as well as knowing there’s an independent support service auditing the site so they can’t be accused of marking their own homework. Again, it comes back to that sense of teamwork, and of our team working with these sites as compliance partners.
That’s an interesting way of looking at it! And how does that partnership link in with the rest of our team back at base?
Well as you know Dan, I’m just one small cog in a system of brilliant individuals. My team and I may be the customer-facing side, but there are some really fantastic people working behind the scenes to support us. There’s a quality team to train us and monitor our performance, there’s a marketing team to share feedback with and alert us to new clients, there’s the webinar team who speak to hundreds of sites every month and of course there’s the admin team who keep everyone organised!
So is it safe to say you’re enjoying the work so far?
After such a long time being distanced from each other, I think everyone is appreciating getting back out there and doing that face-to-face work. I find it so satisfying to see the relief on people’s faces when we take that workload off them and deliver our service, or the celebrations when we do that first audit where we can issue a five star rating certificate.
You’re certainly passionate!
I know! If you had told me a few years ago when I was younger and my haircut was cooler that I’d soon be bouncing with enthusiasm over implementing cleaning Standards I would have thought you were barking mad! The last couple of years have changed us all I think, and for me that has meant taking on this new role, and I’m thrilled to be doing it.
Then I won’t keep you from it any longer! Thanks for your time James.
Any time, Dan.
