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 Nursing Homes Need Specialist Cleaning
Nursing homes care for some of Ireland's most vulnerable people — elderly residents with compromised immune systems, chronic conditions, and limited mobility. In this environment, cleaning is not a housekeeping function; it is a critical infection prevention and control (IPC) measure that directly impacts resident health and safety. A Healthcare Associated Infection (HCAI) in a nursing home can spread rapidly through a resident population, causing serious illness and death.
HIQA (the Health Information and Quality Authority) inspects nursing homes against the National Standards for Residential Care Settings for Older People in Ireland. Environmental cleanliness is a core element of every HIQA inspection. Inspectors assess cleaning schedules, colour-coded systems, cleaning audit results, IPC training records, and the physical cleanliness of resident rooms, communal areas, clinical areas, and kitchens. A poor HIQA finding on environmental cleanliness can result in regulatory action, compliance plans, and reputational damage.
Optus Glean provides dedicated nursing home cleaning teams trained in healthcare cleaning, infection prevention and control, and person-centred care. Our cleaning programmes are designed to meet HIQA standards, support the nursing home's IPC strategy, and treat every resident with dignity and respect.
Resident Room Cleaning
Resident rooms are personal living spaces that require daily cleaning while respecting the resident's dignity, privacy, and preferences. Our resident room cleaning protocol balances thorough infection control with person-centred care.
- Floor cleaning: mopping with hospital-grade disinfectant, paying attention to corners, under beds, and around furniture
- High-touch surface sanitisation: bed rails, call bells, light switches, door handles, remote controls, table surfaces
- En-suite bathroom: full clean and sanitisation of toilet, sink, shower, grab rails, and floor
- Bed making support: bed frame and headboard cleaning (bed linen managed by nursing staff or our laundry service)
- Furniture cleaning: wardrobe exteriors, bedside locker, chair, windowsill
- Personal belongings: cleaned around with care — never moved without resident permission
- Waste management: general and clinical waste separated and removed
- Terminal cleaning: full room decontamination after resident discharge, including curtain changing
Communal Area Cleaning
Communal areas — lounges, dining rooms, corridors, reception, and activity rooms — are high-traffic environments where residents, staff, and visitors interact. These areas must be clean, welcoming, and free from infection risk at all times.
Our communal area cleaning covers lounge and sitting room cleaning including soft furnishing care, dining room table and chair sanitisation before and after each meal, corridor and hallway floor care, reception and entrance cleaning, activity and therapy room cleaning, chapel or prayer room cleaning, and visitor areas and family rooms. Communal areas are cleaned daily, with a focus on high-touch surfaces during the day and comprehensive cleaning in the evening. Carpet and floor deep cleaning is scheduled quarterly.
Clinical Area Cleaning
Many nursing homes have clinical areas including treatment rooms, medication rooms, sluice rooms, and wound care areas. These require healthcare-grade cleaning with specific IPC protocols. Our clinical area cleaning covers treatment room surface decontamination, medication room cleaning (we do not touch medications or clinical equipment), sluice room cleaning and disinfection, clinical waste management, isolation room terminal cleaning, and hand hygiene station maintenance. Clinical areas are cleaned using dedicated colour-coded equipment (yellow) that is never used in any other area of the facility.
Infection Prevention and Control Programme
Optus Glean's IPC programme for nursing homes is designed to break the chain of infection through systematic, documented cleaning practices.
- Colour-coded cleaning system: red (washrooms), blue (general areas), green (kitchen), yellow (clinical/isolation)
- Defined cleaning frequencies for every area: daily, twice-daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly
- High-touch surface sanitisation protocol: minimum twice daily for door handles, handrails, lift buttons, and shared equipment
- Outbreak response protocol: enhanced cleaning activated within hours of outbreak declaration
- Terminal cleaning protocol: full room decontamination after resident discharge or infection episode
- Cleaning audit programme: monthly audits using ATP bioluminescence and visual inspection
- IPC training for all operatives: annual refresher covering standard precautions, hand hygiene, PPE, and outbreak management
- Documentation: all cleaning activities logged in HIQA-ready format
Nursing Home Cleaning Pricing
Nursing home cleaning pricing depends on the number of beds, the size and layout of the facility, clinical areas, and IPC requirements. Below are indicative 2026 pricing ranges for Ireland.
| Service | Price Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Small nursing home (20-30 beds) | €1,200 – €1,800/month | 7 days/week, full service |
| Mid-sized facility (40-60 beds) | €1,800 – €2,800/month | Resident rooms + communal + clinical |
| Large nursing home (80+ beds) | €2,800 – €4,000+/month | Full service, multiple wings/floors |
| Terminal room clean | €100 – €250 | Per room, full decontamination |
| Outbreak enhanced cleaning | €500 – €1,500 | Enhanced programme, duration-dependent |
| Quarterly deep clean | €800 – €2,000 | Full facility deep clean |
Note: Prices exclusive of VAT. Per-bed pricing typically €30–€50/bed/month. Bundling with laundry services saves 10–15%. All pricing includes HIQA-aligned documentation, IPC-trained staff, and colour-coded equipment.
Laundry Services for Nursing Homes
Optus Glean provides commercial laundry services for nursing homes including resident bedding and linen, towels, staff uniforms, table linen, and curtain laundering. All laundry is processed at infection-control-compliant temperatures with strict sluice-to-clean workflow to prevent cross-contamination. Bundling laundry with cleaning delivers genuine cost savings and the convenience of a single provider for both services.
Serving Nursing Homes Across Ireland
Optus Glean provides nursing home cleaning services in every county in Ireland. We work with private nursing homes, HSE-funded facilities, voluntary sector care homes, and nursing home groups. Whether you operate a 25-bed family-run nursing home or an 80-bed facility in Dublin, Cork, Galway, or Limerick, we have the healthcare-trained teams, the IPC systems, and the HIQA compliance expertise to keep your facility clean, safe, and inspection-ready.
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.
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.
Last reviewed: 2026-05-06
