Blue Sky Newsletter March 2021

Welcome to the latest edition of Blue Sky e-News!

As this is the first newsletter for the new year, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank our dedicated staff, clients and partners across all areas of our business. With the Covid-19 pandemic still lingering, it is imperative that we continue to be proactive and responsive to the ever-changing landscape that we are faced with. Information and advice with regards to preventing the virus is being updated regularly and our experienced frontline cleaning staff have been doing an amazing job adapting and continuing to provide the highest standard of cleaning services.

I am excited to announce that we have expanded on an area of our business currently in high demand - HEALTHCARE SUPPORT SERVICE STAFFING SOLUTIONS –. This means you can contact us directly to hire temporary,or casual, support staff experienced in providing services in the health and aged care sectors. In securing these services you only pay for the hours you need which can assist with reducing fixed costs and managing work hours per patient day.

On another note, as autumn and winter approach it is likely that we may experience unexpected storms and rainfall that cause flooding and water damage. Our Rapid Plus response team are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week offering emergency cleaning and restoration services and have a strong track record of acting fast to restore sites including hospitals and office buildings back to their original condition.

As always, please contact us if you require any of our cleaning services. We’d be happy to assist you.

Sincerely,

Martin Premachandra
Managing Director
Blue Sky Services

Introducing our expanded Healthcare Support Service Staffing Solutions

Blue Sky Services are excited to announce our expanded service where you can contact us directly to hire temporary and casual staff without the quality trade-off or high cost of traditional agency staff. We offer fast turn around times, competitive rates and experienced staff. Blue Sky Services will provide staff within 6 hours of your call (minimum charges applies). We have a strigngent healthcare and infection prevention and control focused training and induction program for all staff Our services include:

• Experienced Healthcare cleaners
• Orderly Staff
• High Touch Point (H)TP cleaners
• General cleaners
• Kitchen Hand s
• COVID screening staff
• Staff to completed Periodic/ad-hoc cleaning works
• Labourers for grounds and garden works
• An extra pair of hands

Contact Blue Sky Services next time you are caught short staffed.

1300 226 253

If you would like to know more, or receive a copy of our rate card. Send an email to: admin@blueskyvic.com.au

Blue Sky Services Rapid Plus emergency restoration services have been busy over summer

The busiest time for our Rapid Plus team is usually winter to clean up after , rain, hail damage and floods, but this summer has been unexpectedly busy. In January rainfall was above average across Greater Melbourne, with some sites receiving more than double their average January totals-resulting in significant water damage

Our team’s average response time is 1.5 hrs.

Cleaning up after water damage is more complex than just mopping up the water. It is the water in the air,-the humidity, that can cause long term damage to the structure of a building. We use industrial grade machines to remove the water and then dry the air and the surrounding environment, often leaving our dehumidifiers and driers onsite.

The difference between standard cleaning and medical cleaning?

Over 65% of Blue Sky’s current business involves cleaning in high risk healthcare settings at private and public hospitals including operating theatres, oncology day procedure centres, medical centres, laboratories, maternal and child health centres- and even cleaning ambulances for Ambulance Victoria during the COVID pandemic!

This experience, and our extensive staff training program coordinated by our healthcare professional, ensures our staff fully understand how important it is to clean to the highest standard in an environment where minimising the risk of infection transmission is critical.

How do we know we meet the Cleaning Standards for Victorian Health Facilities 2011 http://www.health.vic.gov.au/cleaningstandards/standards.htm requirements? We use a variety of procedurse and auditing methods, all of which we proactively share with our clients.

Up to date guidelines on general cleaning and disinfecting in a non-healthcare workplace

The corona virus prevention link below provides simple and easy to follow fact sheets. https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/preventing-infection-workplace

Key points:

• Clean surfaces at least daily.
• Use a two-step process- clean surface of obvious contaminants and disinfected the surface to kill viruses and bacteria.
• Clean high touch point surfaces regularly, at least twice daily or more frequently depending on how often and how many people touch the surface.
• When applying the disinfectant, the surfaces should remain wet for the period of time required to kill the virus (contact time) as specified by the manufacturer. If no time is specified, leave for 10 minutes.
• If soft furnishings need to be disinfected – Use steam cleaners that release steam under pressure to ensure appropriate disinfection.
• Wash crockery and cutlery in a dishwasher on the highest setting possible. If a dishwasher is not available, hand wash in hot soapy water.

New important facts about COVID 19 highlighting the need to use professional, experienced cleaning companies

• COVID-19 virus can remain active in the air for up to 3 hrs, but research is indicating that in the right indoor environmental conditions (cool, high humidity, poor air flow), it could remain for up to 18 hours.
• High touch points in a bathroom/toilet may be higher risk areas than previously thought as the virus is shed in faeces well before a person is symptomatic.
• Items difficult to clean- such as cracked vinyl on chairs, may remain a reservoir for the virus.
• COVID-19 particles which settle onto surfaces indoors can be resuspended (reactivated) if they dry out on a surface, such as carpets- so care when cleaning is important.
• If there is a positive case in a commercial kitchen with strong exhaust fans, some internal sections of the exhaust system will require disinfection.
• In areas where there is considerable movement in a small, perhaps not well-ventilated areas such as a change room, COVID can be dispersed into the air when people are removing contaminated clothing. Such as in a theatre change room.

Source- Indoor air Quality Association, Draft Reference and Guidelines for Post Cleaning Validation of Structures Contaminated with SARS- CoV-2 https://www.iaqaaustralia.org.au/