Cleaning services in Island hospitals are still inadequate, despite reports recommending enhanced cleaning and infection control practices following a fatal Clostridium difficile outbreak in Nanaimo, says the hospital cleaners’ union.

WorkSafeBC recently issued 10 orders against Compass Group Canada, the Vancouver Island Health Authority’s cleaning contractor, for health and safety violations at Royal Jubilee and Victoria General hospitals.

The worker safety watchdog found that Compass was failing to conduct meaningful accident investigations and housekeeping staff are inadequately trained to safely handle hazardous cleaning chemicals.

The visits in May and June came on the heels of similar orders issued at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital last fall and again in the spring.

A B.C. Centre for Disease Control report about the C. difficile outbreak at NRGH that ended in May, which was directly responsible for five deaths, found insufficient cleaning staff to meet the basic daily needs of the facility and inadequate training of cleaners. The CDC found that cleaning staff were using a bleach solution for disinfecting that was 100 times weaker than it was supposed to be.

Olive Dempsey, Hospital Employees’ Union spokeswoman, said the latest violations show that VIHA has not learned its lesson.

“We hear ongoing issues from our members about workloads,” she said. “I think we have to ask how many more orders do we need to have before the health authority takes us seriously.”

The most recent orders were issued June 22, days after VIHA released the findings of the BCCDC investigation into the C. difficile outbreak at NRGH and the steps being taken to improve infection control.

“There’s a disconnect there between what WorkSafeBC is saying and what the health authority is saying it is doing,” Dempsey said. “At the same time, we’re seeing serious issues with the housekeepers’ ability to do the work. It absolutely comes back to Compass and the health authority to make sure that workers and patients are safe in our hospitals.”

Bev Dobbyn, director of infection prevention and control, told the News Bulletin last month that VIHA has done a number of things to improve its infection control practices and has asked that additional cleaning staff and infection control nurses be considered in the budget.

Suzanne Germain, VIHA spokeswoman, said while the health authority is concerned about the latest violations, they are not related to cleaning standards, but rather to the education and awareness of workers.

“We are working with them and keeping abreast with the steps that they are taking to respond to these orders,” she said.

Compass spokeswoman Cindy Harris said the company has developed a new training program, including bringing in technicians from the company that makes cleaning chemicals used for infection control.

reporter@nanaimobulletin.com