What does Optus Glean charge per hour?

We do not. Commercial and contract cleaning is delivered to a defined scope on a fixed monthly fee, paid by Direct Debit, with an annual indexed review. Per-hour pricing is for ad-hoc and domestic work, neither of which we do. The fixed monthly fee covers the named primary cleaner, the named relief, all consumables where contracted, all equipment, and the management overhead of running the contract.

What happens if Optus Glean's cleaner is sick?

The named relief is deployed and the site contact is notified by 06:30 on the morning of the absence. The relief is already vetted, inducted, and trained on the site's colour-coded system and IPC standard, so the standard of clean does not change. Substitution is Optus Glean's operational problem, not the buyer's risk to absorb.

How is the fixed monthly fee set?

The fee is set against a defined scope of work — frequency, areas, tasks, consumables, equipment — agreed at contract signature and documented in the service specification. The fee is reviewed once a year against the Consumer Price Index and the Contract Cleaning ERO rate movement, with any change communicated 60 days in advance of the review date. There are no in-year variations unless the scope itself changes.

Why are cleaning services in Ireland so inconsistent?

It is a workforce-design problem rather than an effort problem. Most operatives in the sector are part-time or casual, and many also hold healthcare assistant shifts in nursing homes and acute care. When a care shift is offered, the cleaning shift is dropped. Optus Glean removes that dynamic by employing operatives PAYE on guaranteed hours, so the cleaning role is not the secondary income.

How does Optus Glean stop cleaners disappearing for healthcare shifts?

We make the cleaning role the better work. Pay is set above the Contract Cleaning ERO floor (€14.80 per hour, 2026). Hours are guaranteed and rostered weeks in advance. Annual leave is paid. Pension contributions are made. The cleaner has no incentive to substitute a less predictable casual healthcare shift.

Why are some commercial cleaning quotes for Ireland so much cheaper than others?

Quotes for the same scope range from around €750-1,100 per month at the lower end to €1,500-1,700 per month at the upper end. The differential is almost entirely driven by employment model. Lower quotes assume a casual workforce where the provider carries no employment risk and passes service-continuity risk to the buyer. Higher quotes assume a PAYE workforce where the provider absorbs that risk.

Is the ERO rate a minimum or a market rate in Ireland?

The Contract Cleaning ERO rate of €14.80 per hour is a statutory minimum set under the Labour Court's Sectoral Employment Order. It is a floor, not a ceiling. Providers who pay at the floor are competing for staff with adjacent care-sector roles paying €15-€17 per hour, which is why retention is poor across the lower end of the market.

What evidence is there that this workforce pattern is real?

It is visible in CSO Labour Force Survey data on multi-jobbing in accommodation, administrative support, and human health and social work activities, and in the Workplace Relations Commission's enforcement record under the Contract Cleaning ERO. Practice managers confirm it experientially: the same operative who cleans the practice on Monday is on a healthcare assistant rota at a nearby nursing home on Wednesday.

What happens if my cleaner is sick or on leave?

The named relief is deployed. The site contact is notified by 06:30 on the morning of an unplanned absence, or at the start of the leave period for a planned absence. The relief is already vetted, inducted on the site, and trained on the same colour-coded system and IPC standard as the primary cleaner. The task list, the equipment, and the time window do not change. The clean is delivered to the same standard.

Will I get a different cleaner every week?

No. The model is a named primary cleaner with a named relief, both fixed to the site for the duration of the contract. The relief only attends when the primary is genuinely unavailable — sick day, annual leave, training day — and it is the same named relief each time, not a rotating pool. Long-term continuity of the same two people on a site is what makes the standard of clean stable.

How does Optus Glean handle long-term cover?

For absences longer than two weeks, cover is drawn from the wider Optus Glean trained bench. Every operative on the bench is PAYE-employed, Garda-vetted, and trained to the same documented HIQA-aligned IPC standard, so continuity of standard is preserved. The buyer is informed of the cover plan, the named individuals involved, and the expected duration at the point the long-term absence is identified.

What happens if my primary cleaner leaves Optus Glean?

The relief is promoted to primary on a planned timetable. A new relief is recruited, vetted, inducted on the site, trained on the colour-coded system and IPC standard, and introduced to the buyer before the handover takes effect. There is no scenario in which the buyer discovers, after the fact, that their cleaner has changed. Continuity is engineered, not improvised.

Hospital Cleaning Ireland | HSE & HIQA-aligned

€6.5M Public Liability

€13M Employer's Liability

Garda Vetted Staff

24/7 Emergency Response

HSE Compliant

The Optus Glean promise: predictability

Three pillars. Three commitments. No exceptions.

Predictable cost. One fixed monthly fee, set against a defined scope and an annual indexed review. No variable hours. No surprise invoices. No padded callout charges. Budgeted once, paid by Direct Debit, reviewed once a year.

Predictable presence. The site is cleaned every day it is meant to be cleaned. A named primary cleaner is rostered to your contract, supported by a named relief who is already vetted, inducted, and trained on the same colour-coded system and IPC standard. The schedule does not depend on whether one person is available on one day.

Predictable freedom. A single point of accountability. One contract. One named manager. One number to call. Cleaning is no longer a problem the Practice has to manage — it is a service that runs.

Why cleaning in Ireland is structurally hard to get right

Most cleaning provision in Ireland — including in healthcare-adjacent settings — is delivered by a workforce that is structurally part-time and casual. A significant proportion of operatives across the sector also work as healthcare assistants in nursing homes, residential care, and acute hospitals. Cleaning shifts are typically taken when healthcare shifts are not available, and released when they are. This pattern is consistent with CSO labour data on accommodation, food, and administrative-support employment, and it is the underlying reason that buyers across Ireland encounter inconsistency from agencies they have contracted in good faith.

The pattern is reinforced by two background pressures specific to Ireland. Housing affordability limits the catchment for any role paying at or near the minimum wage. The Contract Cleaning Employment Regulation Order rate of €14.80 per hour for 2026, set under the Labour Court's sectoral employment framework, sits close enough to flexible care-sector pay that operatives drift toward whichever shift pays slightly more on the day. Both pressures pull cleaning staff away from contracted shifts and toward casual healthcare work.

The result, from the buyer's perspective, is the experience most practice managers, facilities leads, and procurement officers in Ireland describe: a clean that is half-completed when the contracted cleaner is available, missed entirely when they are not, and accompanied by recurring conversations with the agency about cover that may or may not arrive.

This is the structural problem Optus Glean is built to solve. Our operatives are fully PAYE-employed with guaranteed weekly hours, paid leave, and pension contributions under Irish auto-enrolment. They are paid above the ERO floor deliberately — because the structural reliability of the service depends on the cleaner choosing to remain in the role rather than rotating through casual healthcare shifts. A named primary cleaner is assigned to your site, supported by a named relief, both Garda-vetted and trained to Optus Glean's documented HIQA-aligned IPC standard.

Why Hospital Cleaning Is Different from Commercial Cleaning

Hospital cleaning is not commercial cleaning with a different label. It is a specialist clinical discipline that sits at the intersection of infection prevention and control (IPC), patient safety, and environmental hygiene. In a hospital, the consequences of inadequate cleaning are measured not in complaints or aesthetics, but in healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs), patient morbidity, extended hospital stays, and — in the worst cases — preventable deaths.

Ireland's hospitals face persistent challenges with HCAIs. The HSE's Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) monitors rates of MRSA, C. difficile, CPE (carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales), and other multi-drug resistant organisms across the acute hospital network. Environmental cleaning is a front-line defence against the transmission of these organisms. A contaminated bed rail, an inadequately cleaned commode, or a poorly decontaminated operating theatre surface can become the vector through which a life-threatening infection passes from one patient to another.

This is why hospital cleaning demands a fundamentally different approach: defined risk zones, colour-coded equipment, healthcare-grade chemicals, trained and competent operatives, documented schedules, auditable outcomes, and oversight by infection control teams. Optus Glean provides this level of specialist hospital cleaning across Ireland — from community hospitals and day hospitals to large acute teaching hospitals with operating theatres, intensive care units, and emergency departments.

Ward Cleaning Services

Hospital wards are where patients spend the majority of their stay. Ward environments range from low-acuity step-down beds to high-dependency units where patients are critically ill and immunocompromised. Our ward cleaning programme is tailored to the risk profile of each ward.

General Ward Cleaning

General medical and surgical wards receive daily cleaning that covers patient bed spaces (bed frame, rails, overbed table, locker, chair, call bell), high-touch surfaces throughout the ward (door handles, light switches, handrails, nurse station surfaces), ward bathrooms and en-suite facilities, dayrooms and patient lounges, ward kitchens, corridors and circulation areas, sluice rooms, and storage areas. Cleaning is performed using the colour-coded cleaning system with blue equipment for general ward areas, red for sanitary areas, and yellow for clinical zones.

Isolation Room Cleaning

Patients with confirmed or suspected infections — MRSA, C. difficile, CPE, norovirus, influenza, COVID-19, tuberculosis — are nursed in isolation rooms or cohort bays. Cleaning these areas requires enhanced precautions: dedicated yellow-coded equipment used exclusively in the isolation zone, full PPE (apron, gloves, mask, eye protection as directed by IPC team), sporicidal disinfectants for C. difficile and norovirus, enhanced high-touch surface cleaning frequency (minimum twice daily), terminal cleaning after patient discharge including curtain change, mattress decontamination, and full environmental wipe-down, and documented cleaning with sign-off by the ward manager or IPC nurse.

ICU and HDU Cleaning

Intensive Care Units (ICU) and High Dependency Units (HDU) are the highest-risk environments in any hospital. Patients are mechanically ventilated, have multiple invasive devices, and are profoundly immunocompromised. Environmental cleaning in ICU/HDU is performed to the most stringent standards: every bed space cleaned a minimum of twice daily with detergent-disinfectant, all monitoring equipment surfaces cleaned between patients, ventilator external surfaces cleaned daily, ICU bathrooms cleaned three times daily, and weekly deep clean of the entire unit including ceiling tiles, light fittings, ventilation grilles, and storage areas. Our ICU cleaning operatives receive specialist training and work in close coordination with the critical care nursing team.

Operating Theatre Cleaning

Operating theatres are classified as ultra-clean environments. The cleaning of theatre suites is arguably the most demanding and regulated aspect of hospital cleaning. Optus Glean provides three categories of theatre cleaning, each with distinct protocols.

Between-Case Cleaning

Between surgical cases, the theatre must be cleaned rapidly and thoroughly to prepare for the next patient. Between-case cleaning includes wiping all horizontal surfaces with detergent-disinfectant, cleaning the operating table and all attachments, mopping the theatre floor with particular attention to the area under and around the operating table, cleaning anaesthetic equipment surfaces, removing and replacing waste bags and sharps containers if full, and checking and restocking hand hygiene stations. Between-case cleaning is completed within a defined turnaround time — typically 15 to 20 minutes — to maintain theatre efficiency without compromising cleanliness standards.

Terminal Theatre Cleaning

At the end of each operating list (or after an infected case), a terminal clean is performed. This is a comprehensive decontamination of the entire theatre environment: all surfaces cleaned from ceiling to floor using a systematic approach, theatre lights and satellite equipment cleaned, anaesthetic machine and trolley surfaces decontaminated, walls spot-cleaned and splashback areas fully cleaned, floor scrubbed with hospital-grade disinfectant, all mobile equipment moved and cleaned underneath, ventilation grilles and diffusers checked and cleaned, and clean equipment re-stocked. Terminal cleaning after an infected case (e.g., a patient with CPE or MRSA) includes enhanced disinfection protocols specified by the hospital's IPC team.

Periodic Deep Clean

In addition to daily between-case and terminal cleaning, operating theatres require periodic deep cleans. These are scheduled monthly or quarterly depending on theatre usage and are comprehensive: ceiling tiles removed and cleaned or replaced, walls washed from ceiling to floor, all fixed equipment moved and cleaned behind, floor stripped (if applicable), cleaned, and re-sealed, storage cupboards emptied, cleaned inside and out, and restocked, light fittings and pendants dismantled and cleaned, and air handling unit grilles cleaned. Deep cleans are typically scheduled at weekends or during theatre downtime to minimise disruption to surgical lists.

A&E and Emergency Department Cleaning

Emergency departments (A&E) are among the most challenging hospital environments to keep clean. They operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with unpredictable patient volumes, high-acuity presentations, and constant foot traffic from patients, ambulance crews, Gardaí, and visitors.

Our A&E cleaning programme addresses these challenges with continuous cleaning presence during peak hours (typically 10:00–02:00), rapid response to blood and body fluid spillages (target response: under 10 minutes), regular trolley and cubicle wipe-down between patients, waiting room and triage area cleaning throughout the day, resuscitation room terminal cleaning after each use, ambulance bay and entrance cleaning, and mental health assessment room cleaning with attention to ligature-risk furniture. A&E cleaning staff must be comfortable working in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment alongside paramedics, emergency physicians, and often distressed patients and families. Our A&E operatives are selected for temperament as well as technical competence.

Outpatient and Day-Case Unit Cleaning

Outpatient departments and day-case units see high volumes of patients attending for consultations, procedures, and treatments before returning home the same day. These areas require daily cleaning that focuses on waiting areas and reception desks, consultation rooms (cleaned between clinics), treatment and procedure rooms, changing areas, patient toilets and accessible facilities, and corridor and circulation areas.

Day-case units where minor surgical procedures and endoscopy are performed require theatre-adjacent cleaning standards, with between-procedure cleaning and terminal cleaning at the end of each list. Our outpatient cleaning schedules are built around clinic timetables to ensure cleaning is completed before the first patient arrives each morning and between clinic sessions throughout the day.

Maternity Unit Cleaning

Maternity units present unique cleaning requirements. New mothers and newborn babies are particularly vulnerable to infection, and the emotional significance of the environment demands exceptional standards of cleanliness and presentation.

Our maternity unit cleaning covers labour and delivery rooms (terminal cleaned after each birth), postnatal wards and individual rooms, the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), antenatal clinics and assessment units, maternity theatre suites, breastfeeding rooms and parent facilities, and maternity kitchen and formula preparation areas. SCBU and NICU cleaning is performed to ICU-equivalent standards, with particular attention to incubator surrounds, monitoring equipment surfaces, and hand hygiene station maintenance. Maternity kitchen and formula preparation areas are cleaned to food-safety standards with green-coded equipment.

Mental Health Facility Cleaning

Mental health inpatient units — whether within general hospitals or standalone approved centres — have specific cleaning considerations that go beyond standard ward cleaning. Patient safety is paramount: cleaning products must be stored securely and never left unattended, equipment must not include items that could be used for self-harm (e.g., long cords, aerosol cans), and cleaning schedules must accommodate patients who may be agitated, confused, or distressed.

Our mental health facility cleaning programme includes anti-ligature awareness training for all operatives, secure chemical storage and inventory management, patient-sensitive cleaning (operatives trained to maintain a calm, non-threatening presence), enhanced cleaning of seclusion and de-escalation rooms, and compliance with Mental Health Commission standards for approved centres. We work closely with mental health nursing teams to understand the specific needs of each unit and adjust our approach accordingly.

The Colour-Coded Cleaning System Explained

The colour-coded cleaning system is the cornerstone of infection prevention in hospital cleaning. It prevents cross-contamination by ensuring that cleaning equipment used in one type of area is never used in another. The system is mandated by the HSE National Cleaning Standards Manual and is a key inspection point for HIQA audits.

Colour	Area	Equipment	Risk Level
Red	Washrooms, toilets, sanitary areas, sluice rooms	Red mops, red cloths, red buckets, red spray bottles	Very High
Yellow	Clinical areas, isolation rooms, treatment rooms, procedure rooms	Yellow mops, yellow cloths, yellow buckets, yellow spray bottles	Very High
Green	Kitchens, food service areas, ward kitchens, canteens	Green mops, green cloths, green buckets, green spray bottles	High
Blue	General areas: corridors, offices, waiting rooms, staff rooms, lobbies	Blue mops, blue cloths, blue buckets, blue spray bottles	Low – Significant

Every Optus Glean operative working in a hospital environment is trained in colour-coded cleaning and assessed for competency before deployment. Equipment is checked and replaced regularly, and colour integrity is maintained through a documented inventory system.

Cleaning Frequency by Hospital Risk Zone

The HSE National Cleaning Standards Manual defines cleaning frequencies based on the risk classification of each hospital area. Optus Glean builds cleaning schedules that meet or exceed these minimum frequencies.

Risk Category	Example Areas	Routine Cleaning	Deep Clean
Very High Risk	Operating theatres, ICU, HDU, SCBU/NICU, isolation rooms, burns units	2–3 times daily	Weekly
High Risk	General wards, A&E, maternity, renal dialysis, endoscopy, pharmacy	Daily (minimum)	Monthly
Significant Risk	Outpatient clinics, day-case units, physiotherapy, radiology, pathology	Daily	Quarterly
Low Risk	Offices, meeting rooms, corridors, reception, staff rooms, stores	Daily or 3–5 times/week	6-monthly

HSE National Cleaning Standards Manual Compliance

The HSE National Cleaning Standards Manual is the definitive reference document for hospital cleaning in Ireland. It sets out the standards, frequencies, methods, and audit frameworks that every hospital cleaning service must follow. Optus Glean's hospital cleaning programmes are built directly from this manual.

Key elements of our HSE compliance programme include area risk classification aligned with the Manual's four-tier risk model, cleaning schedules that meet or exceed the minimum frequencies for each risk category, chemical selection from the Manual's approved product types, colour-coded cleaning system as specified in the Manual, documented cleaning records with operative sign-off, cleaning audit programme using the Manual's 49-element audit tool, corrective action procedures for audit findings below the compliance threshold (85% for high-risk areas, 75% for low-risk), management reporting with trend analysis and action planning, and annual review and update of cleaning specifications to reflect Manual revisions.

Compliance with the HSE National Cleaning Standards Manual is not optional — it is the baseline expectation for any hospital cleaning provider in Ireland. Our programme is designed to consistently exceed the Manual's minimum standards and to demonstrate this through documented, auditable evidence.

HIQA Inspection Preparation

HIQA (the Health Information and Quality Authority) conducts inspections of public and private hospitals in Ireland. Environmental cleanliness is a core component of HIQA’s assessment framework, sitting within the broader themes of patient safety and quality of care. A HIQA inspection can be announced or unannounced, and inspectors will assess the cleanliness of patient areas, clinical areas, public areas, and support areas.

Optus Glean supports hospitals in HIQA inspection preparation by maintaining inspection-ready cleaning standards at all times (not just before inspections), providing a complete documentation suite ready for inspector review, conducting regular internal cleaning audits that mirror HIQA’s assessment methodology, training operatives to answer inspector questions about their cleaning procedures, ensuring all IPC training is current and documented, maintaining up-to-date chemical safety information and COSHH records, and providing rapid-response deep cleaning for any areas identified as concerns before or during an inspection.

Our philosophy is simple: if your hospital is always clean to HIQA standard, HIQA inspections become a confirmation exercise rather than a cause for anxiety. We help hospitals achieve and maintain that standard every day, not just on inspection day.

Staff Training Requirements

Hospital cleaning operatives are not general cleaners with an upgraded title. They are specialist environmental hygiene professionals who require extensive and ongoing training to work safely and effectively in a clinical environment.

Mandatory Training Programme

Infection prevention and control (IPC): Chain of infection, transmission routes, standard precautions, transmission-based precautions, hand hygiene (WHO 5 Moments), PPE donning and doffing
Colour-coded cleaning system: Equipment identification, zone allocation, cross-contamination prevention, equipment maintenance and replacement
Chemical safety: Product identification, dilution rates, contact times, COSHH awareness, SDS location and interpretation, first aid for chemical exposure
Sharps awareness: Identification of sharps hazards, needlestick injury protocol, reporting procedures, sharps container management
Blood and body fluid spillage: Spillage kit contents and use, decontamination procedure, waste disposal, reporting and documentation
Healthcare waste management: Waste segregation (healthcare risk waste, sharps, recyclable, general), bag colour codes, waste storage and collection, pharmaceutical waste
Manual handling: Safe lifting and carrying, equipment operation (floor scrubbers, mop wringers), reporting musculoskeletal issues
Fire safety: Hospital fire procedures, evacuation routes, fire extinguisher types, reporting fire hazards
Patient confidentiality: Data protection awareness, patient dignity, what not to discuss outside the hospital
Safeguarding: Recognising signs of abuse or neglect, reporting concerns through hospital safeguarding procedures

Specialist Training

In addition to the mandatory programme, operatives assigned to specific areas receive specialist training: operating theatre cleaning protocols for theatre operatives, isolation room decontamination for ward operatives, mental health awareness for psychiatric unit operatives, neonatal environment cleaning for SCBU/NICU operatives, and food hygiene for kitchen area operatives. All training is documented, competency-assessed, and refreshed annually. Training records are maintained as part of our HIQA documentation suite and are available for inspector review.

Hospital Cleaning Pricing

Hospital cleaning is priced on a contract basis, with rates reflecting the specialist nature of the work, the training requirements, the chemical costs, and the 24/7 operational demand. Our hospital cleaning rates are competitive and transparent.

Service	Rate	Notes
Contract cleaning operative	€14–€20/hr	Rate depends on shift pattern, area risk level, and contract volume
Theatre cleaning team	€16–€22/hr	Premium rate for specialist theatre training and between-case turnaround
24/7 on-call cover	€18–€24/hr	Night and weekend premium for unsociable hours
Ad-hoc deep clean	From €500	Per area — wards, theatres, departments. Priced on survey.
Outbreak response	From €800	Emergency mobilisation for norovirus, C. diff, CPE outbreaks

Contract pricing is calculated following a site survey where we assess the hospital's floor area, department layout, risk zones, staffing requirements, chemical needs, equipment provision, and expected cleaning frequencies. We provide a detailed specification document and a fixed monthly price with no hidden extras.

How Optus Glean handles staff shortages

Every Optus Glean contract is staffed on a redundancy model rather than a single-person model. A named primary cleaner is assigned to the site at contract start. A named relief is assigned alongside them. Both are PAYE-employed by Optus Glean, both are Garda-vetted, both are inducted on the site's specific layout, access protocols, and colour-coded equipment system, and both are trained to the same documented HIQA-aligned IPC standard. Substitution is built into the contract from the first day, not arranged on the day cover is needed.

Sick day cover. When the primary cleaner is unable to work, the named relief is deployed. The Practice site contact is notified by 06:30 on the morning of the absence by SMS or email, with the name of the relief who is attending. The relief follows the same task list, uses the same equipment, and finishes within the same window. The standard of clean is unchanged because the relief was prepared for this scenario before the absence happened.

Annual leave cover. Annual leave is rostered weeks in advance and the relief is scheduled to cover the full leave period. The Practice is informed at the start of the leave period — not on the morning leave begins. This is the same model used in clinical rota management: known absences are pre-staffed, not improvised.

Long-term cover. If the primary cleaner is absent for more than two weeks (extended illness, parental leave, bereavement leave), cover is drawn from the wider trained bench rather than relying on the single named relief. The Practice is kept informed of the cover plan, the named individuals involved, and the expected duration. Continuity of standard is maintained because every operative on the bench is trained to the same documented standard.

Permanent reassignment. If the primary cleaner moves to a new permanent role within Optus Glean — promotion, relocation, retirement — the relief is promoted to primary on a planned timetable, a new relief is trained on the site, and both are introduced to the Practice before the handover takes effect. There is no day on which the Practice discovers, after the fact, that their cleaner has changed.

Substitution is Optus Glean's operational problem, not the Practice's risk to absorb. The buyer pays a fixed monthly fee for a defined scope to be delivered, every day it is meant to be delivered. The mechanism by which we deliver it — primary, relief, bench, retraining — is our cost to manage and our risk to carry.

Hospitals We Serve Across Ireland

Optus Glean provides hospital cleaning services to public and private hospitals across all 26 counties in Ireland. We work with hospitals within all six HSE Hospital Groups:

RCSI Hospital Group: Beaumont Hospital, Connolly Hospital, Cavan General Hospital, Our Lady of Lourdes Drogheda, Louth County Hospital, Rotunda Hospital
Ireland East Hospital Group: Mater Misericordiae, St. Vincent’s, National Maternity Hospital, Wexford General, Midland Regional Hospitals
Saolta University Health Care Group: University Hospital Galway, Sligo University Hospital, Letterkenny University Hospital, Mayo University Hospital, Portiuncula University Hospital, Roscommon University Hospital
UL Hospitals Group: University Hospital Limerick, Ennis Hospital, Nenagh Hospital, St. John’s Hospital
South/South West Hospital Group: Cork University Hospital, Mercy University Hospital, South Infirmary Victoria, Kerry University Hospital, Waterford University Hospital, South Tipperary General
Children’s Health Ireland: CHI at Crumlin, CHI at Temple Street, CHI at Tallaght, the new National Children’s Hospital

We also provide cleaning services to private hospitals including the Mater Private, Blackrock Clinic, Beacon Hospital, Galway Clinic, Bon Secours hospitals, and UPMC facilities across Ireland.

Why Choose Optus Glean for Hospital Cleaning

Healthcare specialists: Hospital and healthcare cleaning is our core competency, not a sideline to commercial cleaning
HSE compliant: Our programmes are built directly from the HSE National Cleaning Standards Manual
HIQA ready: Complete documentation suite prepared for HIQA inspection at all times
IPC trained: Every operative completes our comprehensive IPC training programme before deployment
Colour-coded systems: Full colour-coded cleaning with documented equipment management
24/7 cover: Day, evening, night, weekend, and bank holiday cleaning cover to match hospital operations
Outbreak response: Emergency mobilisation for infection outbreaks with enhanced decontamination protocols
Fully insured: €6.5M public liability and €13M employer’s liability insurance
Garda vetted: All staff are Garda vetted through the National Vetting Bureau
Audited quality: Regular cleaning audits with documented results and corrective action tracking
National coverage: We serve hospitals across all 26 counties in Ireland
Experience: Proven track record in nursing home, GP surgery, and acute hospital environments

Frequently asked questions

How much does healthcare cleaning cost in Ireland in 2026?

A GP practice or primary care centre is priced as a fixed monthly fee per site, set against a defined scope (rooms, frequency, IPC standard) and held under a multi-year contract with an annual indexed review. The Contract Cleaning ERO 2026 sets a €14.80/hour floor for the labour component, but reputable providers price the contract, not the hour. Expect a single line on the invoice and a monthly Direct Debit.

What standards apply to healthcare cleaning in Ireland?

HIQA's National Standards for Infection Prevention and Control, the HSE National Cleaning Standards Manual, the HPSC's hand-hygiene guidelines, and S.I. 7 of 2009 on healthcare-associated infection. The Patient Safety Act 2023 has further raised expectations on documented evidence. A compliant cleaning programme produces an audit trail that maps directly to these standards — colour-coded equipment, two-stage cleaning, and validated disinfection contact times.

Why is healthcare cleaning consistency such a problem in Ireland?

Most Irish cleaning provision is delivered by part-time, casual, or self-employed operatives who often also work as healthcare assistants and rotate between cleaning and care shifts. Housing affordability and wage compression in larger urban areas reinforce this pattern. The result is a different person in your practice most days, no continuity on the IPC standard, and a fragile audit trail at HIQA inspection.

What is HIQA-aligned IPC and why does it matter?

HIQA-aligned infection prevention and control means the daily cleaning programme is documented, executed, and evidenced against HIQA's IPC standards and the HSE National Cleaning Standards Manual. In practice that means colour-coded equipment, two-stage detergent-then-disinfectant cleaning of clinical surfaces, validated contact times per the Safety Data Sheet, signed daily checklists, and records that survive an unannounced inspection.

What's the difference between PAYE and casual cleaning contracts in healthcare?

A PAYE-employed cleaner is on payroll, paid above the Contract Cleaning ERO floor, holds a formal contract of employment, has Garda vetting on file, paid leave, and PRSI/pension contributions through the employer. A casual or self-employed operative is none of those things. PAYE staffing is the only model that supports a named primary cleaner and named relief — which is what continuity in a regulated environment actually requires.

How do I evaluate a cleaning provider for a healthcare setting?

Ask three questions. One: are the cleaners PAYE-employed by the company that signs the contract, or subcontracted? Two: who is the named primary cleaner for my site, and who is the named relief? Three: can the provider produce an IPC-aligned audit pack — colour-coded SOP, signed daily checklists, SDS file, Garda vetting register — that maps to HIQA standards on day one of the contract.

What should be in a cleaning contract for a GP practice?

A defined scope per room, frequencies tied to clinical risk, the IPC standard the contract is delivered against (HIQA / HSE National Cleaning Standards Manual), the named primary cleaner and relief, the auditing programme, the chemical regime (with SDS), Garda vetting confirmation, the fixed monthly fee, the annual indexed review mechanism, and a clean exit clause. No per-hour pricing. No ad-hoc top-up charges.

Who handles clinical waste at a GP practice?

Clinical waste, sharps, and pharmaceutical waste are handled by a licensed healthcare-waste contractor under the Waste Management Acts 1996-2023, not by the cleaning provider. The cleaning team's role is environmental cleaning of waste-holding areas, sharps awareness, and immediate reporting of any found sharps to clinical staff. In Ireland, this typically means a separate orange-bag and yellow-sharps collection from a HSE-approved contractor running on a fixed schedule.

Hospital Cleaning Services in Ireland