How to Write Your Practice's Cleaning Policy and Schedule (With a Template)
Every accredited general practice needs a cleaning policy and a cleaning schedule. Under the 6th edition of the RACGP Standards, criterion CG10.A asks for a cleaning policy aligned with the RACGP's Infection prevention and control guidelines. Under the 5th edition, it sits inside the practice's infection control policy for Criterion GP4.1. Either way, the document is the same, and most practices can write a good one in an afternoon.
This is how we would write it. Adapt it to your own building; a template copied word for word from somewhere else is the first thing a surveyor notices.
Policy first, schedule second
The policy is short and rarely changes. It says who is responsible, what principles the practice follows, and how cleaning is checked.
The schedule is the working document. It lists every surface, how often it is cleaned, how, with what, and by whom. It changes whenever the practice changes.
Part 1: the cleaning policy
The 6th edition guidance says the policy should identify responsibilities, work health and safety issues, and procedures for routine scheduled cleaning, unscheduled cleaning and monitoring. Six headings cover it.
1. Purpose and scope. One paragraph: the policy covers environmental cleaning of all clinical and non-clinical areas of the practice, follows the RACGP Infection prevention and control guidelines, and applies to staff and contractors.
2. Responsibilities. Name the roles, not the people:
- the infection prevention and control coordinator (a member of the clinical team) owns the policy and reviews it
- the practice manager manages the cleaning contract and the records
- clinical staff clean patient equipment and the examination couch between patients, manage spills during clinic hours, and handle clinical waste and sharps
- the contract cleaner cleans to the schedule, records each visit and reports problems
3. Principles. Keep it to a few lines:
- clean before disinfecting; detergent and water for routine cleaning, disinfectant where risk calls for it
- TGA-listed hospital-grade disinfectant, used at the label dilution and contact time
- colour-coded equipment by zone; clean to dirty, high to low
- hand hygiene and gloves for all cleaning
4. Unscheduled cleaning. What happens outside the schedule: blood and body fluid spills (with the spill kit and who uses it), cleaning after a patient with a suspected infectious illness, and extra cleaning during an outbreak. Our spills and outbreaks post has the detail.
5. Work health and safety. Safety data sheets held on site for every product, the hazardous substances register, PPE, and training for anyone who cleans.
6. Monitoring and review. How the practice knows cleaning happened and was good enough: cleaner attendance records, a regular audit or inspection, how problems are reported and fixed, and an annual review date.
Part 2: the cleaning schedule
The RACGP guidelines say the schedule should specify the staff responsible, the surfaces, the frequency, the method, and the products and equipment. A table does it best. Start with this and add a row for every surface in your practice:
| Area / surface | Frequency | Method | Product and equipment | Who |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consult room door handles, light switches | Daily | Damp wipe | Detergent; blue cloth | Cleaner |
| Toilet door handles, flush, taps | Twice daily, and after a patient with suspected gastro | Clean then disinfect | Detergent, then hospital-grade disinfectant; red cloth | Cleaner (evening), reception (midday) |
| Examination couch | Between patients | Wipe | Detergent/disinfectant wipe | Clinical staff |
| Examination couch base, step, pillow | Daily | Damp wipe | Detergent; blue cloth | Cleaner |
| Reception counter, card reader, pens | Daily, and during clinic as needed | Clean then disinfect | Detergent, then disinfectant; yellow cloth | Cleaner / reception |
| Waiting room chairs and arms | Daily | Damp wipe | Detergent; yellow cloth | Cleaner |
| Hard floors, clinical rooms | Daily | Damp mop | Detergent; blue mop | Cleaner |
| Hard floors, toilets | Daily | Damp mop, last, towards the door | Detergent then disinfectant; red mop | Cleaner |
| Carpets | Daily vacuum; extraction quarterly | HEPA vacuum; hot water extraction | Vacuum; extraction machine | Cleaner / periodic contractor |
| Staff kitchen benches, sink, fridge handle | Daily | Damp wipe | Detergent; green cloth | Cleaner |
| Clinical waste bins, sharps containers | As needed | Seal, store, arrange collection | Per waste contractor | Clinical staff |
| Blood and body fluid spills | Immediately | Spill kit procedure | Spill kit; disinfectant | Whoever finds it, per policy |
| Vents, high ledges, light fittings | Monthly | Damp dust | Detergent; extension tool | Cleaner |
| Privacy curtains | Six-monthly and when visibly soiled | Replace or launder | Disposable or laundered | Practice |
The frequencies here follow the examples in the RACGP guidelines where they give one, and our usual practice where they do not. Set your own by risk: a busy practice with a large paediatric list may want touch points done twice a day in winter.
The line that causes most of the trouble
Almost every gap we find in a practice's schedule sits in the same place: the boundary between what the cleaner does at night and what the clinical team does during the day. The examination couch is the classic case. The cleaner cleans the couch, base and step every night; the clinical team wipes the patient contact surface between every patient. If the schedule says only "couch: daily", nobody is responsible for between-patient cleaning on paper.
The same goes for patient equipment (blood-pressure cuffs, scales, otoscope handles), spills during clinic hours, the vaccine fridge, and clinical waste. Write each one down with a named role against it.
Making the schedule match the contract
Your cleaner's scope of work should be the cleaner's rows from this schedule, word for word. If the contract says something different from the schedule, the schedule is fiction. Our office cleaning scope of work template shows the format, and the GP clinic checklist covers the room-by-room detail.
Proving it happens
A schedule on the wall is not monitoring. The evidence a surveyor looks for is:
- attendance: when the cleaner was on site. Ours sign in and out on our app inside a geofence around the practice, with a photo, every visit.
- inspection: someone walking the practice and scoring it. Our supervisors do it every three weeks and share the score and photos with the practice.
- follow-up: what was found and when it was fixed.
Keep three months of each in one folder and the monitoring section of your policy is covered. Our accreditation timeline shows when to start.
Review it once a year
Put a date on the policy and the schedule and review both each year, and whenever the practice changes: a new room, a new service, a new cleaner, a new product. Note what changed and why. That one line in a version history tells a surveyor the document is used, not filed.
If you would like a cleaner whose scope is written to your schedule from day one, see medical cleaning Melbourne, check the suburb pages for Richmond, Greensborough or Geelong, or ask for a walkthrough.