A Scottish care home has invested in a state-of-the-art cleaning service to minimise the risk of Covid-19 contamination to residents, visitors, and staff.

Staff at Cramond Residence will never wear their uniforms or work shoes outside of their workplace thanks to the new stringent decontamination laundry service.

The care home made a substantial investment into the uniform cleaning service where each employee receives three sets of work clothes, which get professionally washed after each shift, along with a pair of Sketchers trainers kept and cleaned on the premises.

Staff at the Edinburgh home must arrive in non-work clothes and have a designated locker for every shift, which is sanitised and thoroughly cleaned between shifts.

Every staff member’s uniform is stored freshly cleaned and ready to be utilised.

After every shift, the dedicated team leave their uniforms within a designated area so be professionally laundered, with name labels stitched into every garment to avoid any confusion.

Alison Newton, Operations Manager at Cramond Residence, said: “We want to do everything we can to minimise contamination or risk to our residents, visitors and staff.

“While Covid-19 has sharpened the world’s focus to infection control, from day one we’ve put measures in place to reduce the chances of infection entering and spreading.

“Our staff are incredible and diligently stick to what are stringent rules. They all want to do their best to reduce the likelihoods of viruses or bugs of any description entering the home.”
Since opening in 2018, specialist Miele appliances have been used to accommodate eco-friendly elements for washing, drying and ironing from water reduction to shorter cycles.

The care home was purpose built and when it was being designed, infection control was a top priority and bosses worked with architects at every stage to include the most up-to-date best practice.

Small group living means that the home is made up of nine distinct “houses” each with their own private lounge, dining and snug areas, rather than large communal areas, and each resident has their own en-suite bathroom facilities.

It comes after a number of outbreaks and subsequent in Scottish care homes has led to worries about the safety of elderly and vulnerable residents.

However, many believe that the curbs on visiting elderly loved ones and relatives in Scotland's care homes that were in place for the majority of the pandemic led to months of cruel isolation.