Laundry services at St Richard’s Hospital to undergo multi-million pound refresh

Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is investing £5.9 million over three years to replace all the equipment, improve efficiency and provide new capacity for the laundry to serve greater demand and potentially more hospitals or other local businesses.

David McLaughlin, director of Estates and Facilities at the trust, said: “Our laundry team washes more than four million items per year and we’re really pleased to move forward with this significant investment to replace and improve all the equipment.

“A hospital laundry has operated from Broyle Road in Chichester since before the NHS was founded and, although our equipment is not that old, much of it has now become outdated and inefficient as washing technology has evolved.

“For example, cleaning nearly 90,000 bed sheets, scrubs and other items every week produces more than 800 tonnes of C02 a year – that’s around 13 per cent of the entire hospital’s carbon footprint!

“And given our prominent position in the community, we take our environmental responsibility very seriously and are committed to doing all we can to reduce our impact.”

Four options were considered to improve the laundry and linen service, including outsourcing it to a more efficient, larger-scale commercial operator.

The trust however, is planning on becoming a larger trust in April by merging with Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust (BSUH) – which runs hospitals in Haywards Heath and Brighton – providing hospital decision-makers with a new perspective as they plan for the future.

Chief finance officer, Karen Geoghegan, said: “When we proposed the merger of our two trusts we promised we would continue to invest in our services and our people, and the expansion and improvement of our laundry service is exactly the type of development we had in mind.

“It’s better for our patients, better for our staff, better for our finances and better for the environment too.

“For instance, we believe we can more than double the amount of laundry we do and at the same time reduce carbon emissions by at least 18 per cent.

“We will also be sourcing the majority of our water from a local borehole.”