New technology for quickly disinfecting rooms to be used by Hope House Children’s Hospice to help seriously ill children

Hope House Children’s Hospice is now able to help more seriously ill children due to new cutting-edge technology for quickly disinfecting rooms.

The charity have found it challenging to keep their hospices COVID-safe throughout the pandemic, but thanks to Shrewsbury-based company Select-a-Skip it has been able to buy new Ozone Generation Machines that can disinfect a room within an hour.

With a thorough clean by hand added in, the hospice staff can have a COVID-safe room ready for a child in just two hours.

Heath Arnfield, Hospice Hospitality Manager, said that until now rooms needed to be left empty for three days between each child entering and some areas such as play rooms and sensory rooms had been out of action for long periods of time. 

“These new Ozone Generation Machines mean we can make more rooms available to more children and families that really need us,” he said.

“During COVID-19 our families have been shielding with their children. After months of isolation at home they are exhausted and in need of vital respite care.

“We have already adapted our facilities and care services to ensure they are as COVID-safe as possible, and children are now visiting for planned respite once again in addition to crisis and end of life care.

“These machines will help us reach more families than we have been able to do so far this year, which is great news.”  

James Keay, whose company Select-a-Skip has bought the machine for Hope House, said: “We were delighted to be able to support Hope House by funding the purchase of a new Ozone machine.

“The hospice is an invaluable service to so many families in our community and it seemed a shame that rooms in the hospice were unavailable for occupation until they had been decontaminated.

“The Ozone machine now means that a room can be turned around within hours instead of days allowing many more families of Hope House to access the facilities, care and support of their incredibly hard working and caring team.”