Inivos launches charitable initiative to address COVID-19 in hospices

Elderly woman putting on medical protective face mask before going outside

Leading UK infection prevention and control experts Inivos have today launched a new charitable initiative, ‘Inivos in the Community’, to tackle the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen in hospices.

Inivos will provide free-of-charge clinical decontamination services to hospices and palliative care organisations concerned about the spread of SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 virus, within their facilities.

To support hospices during the pandemic, Inivos is aiming to provide five decontamination processes each month to organisations in need of infection prevention and control, with applications assessed based on the urgency and type of decontamination required.

By filling in a short application form, organisations will be able to apply for decontamination of patient areas, treatment rooms and staff personal protective equipment (PPE) under the scheme.

Tautvydas Karitonas, Head of Research and Development at Inivos, commented: “The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that clinical decontamination is not just the responsibility of hospitals.

“Residential care homes, dental surgeries, hospices and end-of-life organisations are all faced with new challenges as they look to prevent viral spread within their facilities. This is particularly challenging for palliative care organisations and hospices, who often rely on public donations and charitable grants to top up their local authority funding.

“To support the important work that hospices and palliative care organisations do, caring for adults and children with terminal and life-limiting illness, we’ve launched a new initiative to help them with their infection prevention and control needs.

“By limiting the potential transmission of viral and bacterial infections, we hope to help hospice professionals continue their incredible work without fear of exposure to COVID-19.”

Inivos, who are leading UK experts in infection prevention and control, regularly decontaminate more than a third of NHS hospitals with their innovative hydrogen peroxide vapour (HPV) and ultraviolet-C light (UV-C) technologies.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the company has developed a number of ground-breaking new technologies to support hospitals, care homes, dental surgeries and hospices with their infection prevention and control requirements.

They launched ProXpod, a rapid-deployment chamber which uses hydrogen peroxide vapour (HPV) to effectively decontaminate PPE, in April. This was followed by the Ultra-V Connect, a remote ultraviolet-C (UV-C) decontamination device ideal for use between aerosol-generating procedures, as it can reduce pathogens to a safe level in eight minutes.