Blogs / 23.09.2025

Collaboration in Action: Medirest at the Healthcare Facilities Management Conference

Supporting the NHS is at the heart of everything we do. At this year’s Healthcare Facilities Management Conference, we were proud to share our experiences and celebrate how true partnership helps deliver better outcomes for patients and staff. With services across 23 NHS Trusts and more than 10,000 facilities management colleagues, we see every day how scale, innovation, and teamwork can make a real difference.

Together with NHS teams, we work side by side to build trust, bring reassurance, and provide services that support both clinical care and the people at its centre. These were our main takeaways from the event.

Investing in NHS spaces every day

Every day, our teams bring their commitment to the NHS to life in hospitals across the country. From preparing 16,800 patient meals and 45,000 staff and visitor meals each day to serving 75,000 cups of coffee and carrying out 6,000 patient surveys, our people play an active role in shaping the hospital experience. While catering and security remain vital, this year’s conference highlighted the critical (yet often unseen) role of cleaning services in creating safe and welcoming environments.

Meeting today’s challenges

Hospitals face growing pressures: overcrowded wards, limited capacity, and increased infection control demands. Traditional decontamination methods, such as hydrogen peroxide and UV, often require rooms to be sealed or patients to be moved, which is rarely practical in busy settings. With some hospitals welcoming over 190,000 people each year, the need for a safe, effective, and rapid infection control solution has never been greater.

A new approach to infection control

To meet this need, we trialed the use of hypochlorous acid delivered as a dry mist. This innovative solution provides thorough decontamination without closing or vacating rooms. It’s quick, safe, simple to use, and fits seamlessly into live clinical environments, switching on, off, or between spaces as needed.

Collaboration at the core

Technology alone doesn’t deliver change, but people do. At Sherwood Forest Hospitals, the trial succeeded because it was shaped and supported by NHS colleagues. Communications teams shared the story across social media and internal channels, while domestic and nursing staff became champions of the system, driving adoption and confidence.

Shared ownership, lasting results

Teams on the ground valued the system’s speed, lightness, and ease of use. Nurses welcomed the reassurance of safer spaces for patients. Because ownership was shared, the solution wasn’t imposed, but embraced. And the results spoke volumes: hospital-acquired flu cases reduced from 34% to 5%, RSV cases from 33% to 8%, and seasonal savings of £27,500 delivered a return on investment in the very first winter. Just as importantly, 100% of staff endorsed its continued use, highlighting greater comfort, safety and confidence.

Beyond the technology

What truly stood out at the conference wasn’t the technology, but the spirit of partnership that made it possible. By listening, co-creating and adapting alongside NHS colleagues, we showed that innovation reaches its full potential only when matched by collaboration. Together, we are building solutions that not only address today’s challenges, but also lay the foundations for stronger, more resilient hospitals for the future.