Breaking the infection chain: supporting the essential work of cleaners in Cambodia's healthcare facilities

Environmental cleaning plays a critical role in preventing infections in health centres, but often receives insufficient attention in low- and middle- income countries. This report summarises key learnings from the Clean Frontline project, a training programme to strengthen environmental cleaning practices in hospitals across Cambodia. 

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of environmental cleaning for effective infection prevention and control (IPC) in healthcare facilities. Even seemingly clean surfaces can harbour harmful micro-organisms, posing risks to patients, healthcare workers and visitors. 

This project implemented an environmental cleaning training programme for cleaners in 13 hospitals across three provinces in Cambodia. Despite the country's 2017 National Infection Prevention and Control Guidelines, cleaning staff with limited literacy struggle to understand the technical language. 

This report summarises our key learnings and recommendations for health ministries to empower cleaners, enhance their capacity to maintain a clean and hygienic environment, and ultimately, improve IPC measures across Cambodia's healthcare system.  

The recommendations from this project include:

• Develop a cleaner-focused training programme for environmental cleaning, using simple language, visual aids and hands-on demonstrations to ensure cleaning staff can effectively understand and implement cleaning protocols
• Integrate cleaner-focused content in the national IPC guidelines and include a dedicated section on environmental cleaning
• Establish a supportive supervision system, involving regular field visits, mentorship and feedback sessions to address challenges faced by cleaning staff
• Allocate enough financial and material resources, including cleaning supplies, equipment and infrastructure to support the implementation of the national environmental cleaning programme

Top image: Chantu cleans the delivery building at the Kampong Trolach Referral Hospital in Kampong Trolach District, Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia. July 2020.