It’s time to take a fresh look at chlorine disinfection tablets used for environmental disinfection. In the last few years a number of new, and it has to be said, considerably more expensive alternatives to soluble chlorine based environmental disinfection solutions have arrived in hospitals.
These have in part been developed to address some of the issues which users have found with chlorine tablets. But their high cost has meant that in many healthcare organisations their use is limited.
A key issue with chlorine based solutions is odour. There is no escaping the fact that chlorine does have an odour which many people find unpleasant, particularly when exposed to it on a regular or daily basis. Other issues reported by healthcare cleaning and infection prevention professionals relate primarily to achieving the correct strength and consistent dosage levels for different applications such as general environmental disinfection, deep cleaning and terminal cleaning.
Research undertaken during the development of SoChlor found that many of the issues users reported with existing chlorine based environmental disinfection products relate to inadequate support from existing suppliers. In particular the inadequate provision of training and support aids was cited regularly.
Issues such as these are especially critical in locations which may have a higher than average staff turnover or be heavily reliant on short term or temporary staff, both of which are, unfortunately, encountered in the healthcare cleaning sector.
That this may have resulted, in some cases, in a reduction of use of chlorine based hospital disinfection products is potentially detrimental to the overall infection prevention and control strategy being pursued by the NHS and other healthcare providers.
CHLORINE STILL BEST FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DISINFECTION
Infection control experts agree that soluble chlorine tablets are still the best all-round choice for environmental disinfection with the highest level of efficacy. Chlorine based solutions are recommended by both the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) which regulates pharmaceutical and other products used in the NHS and by other healthcare providers in the UK.
In addition to having the highest level of efficacy chlorine tablets offer a number of other advantages for users. They are chemically more stable as well as being significantly easier to transport and store than liquid chlorines. Soluble forms have a longer ‘shelf life’ meaning wastage is lower. Soluble chlorine is also significantly cheaper than many newer, high-tech alternatives.
SOCHLOR ADDRESSES KEY CONCERNS
New SoChlor sets out to address the concerns expressed by users of soluble chlorine by taking a fresh look at the presentation of the products within the range as well as the very important issues surrounding user education, training and support.
Working with leading trusts GV Health have re-engineering tablet sizes to make them easier to use. We have also redesigned the diluter to ensure users can achieve the right concentration level every time.
Uniquely among UK based suppliers, SoChlor is backed with a full range of support services. This includes a number of education, training and support options delivered by fully qualified infection control specialists. We also provide access to our advice line, plus guides and usage aids.
Using soluble chlorine tablets correctly can go a significant way towards meeting many of the concerns users have expressed in the past when working with other suppliers including the high levels of odours traditionally associated with the product group. In recently completed hospital trials users rated SoChlor more highly than any other environmental cleaning tablets both for ease of use and support.
With these developments it truly is time to take a fresh look at chlorine disinfection tablets.
The SoChlor range includes SoChlor DST, SoChlor TABS, SoChlor Granules and supporting usage aids.
- fully approved by NHS pharmacists
- Sodium Dichloroisocyanurate (NaDCC) based
- certified with test standards BS:EN1650, BS:EN1276 & BS:EN13704
- effective against fungal, bacterial, virucidal and sporicidal activity
- new style diluter bottle makes it easy to ensure correct strength dilution is obtained every time
For more information about SoChlor click here
