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Staff at Barnet Hospital (BH) and Chase Farm Hosptial (CFH) will have noticed a new colleague in prominent areas – in the form of Medirest’s new ‘Lionbot’ cleaning robot.
The cleaning assistant scrubs and dries floors and was introduced to BH last year to clean at night while it was embedded within the site. In recent months it has started to be used during the day in public and general areas with high footfall. After the success of the robot at BH, CFH has now got its own robot as well.
The robot is named Hanzel after Hanzel Gardener who was a leading advisor on domestic cleaning at CFH, but who sadly passed away during the pandemic.
Hanzel the robot is designed to help cleaning staff in their duties. Instead of a person operating a cleaning machine, they support the robot by carrying out pre-sweeping, damp dusting of surfaces, high and low dusting and glass cleaning. The robot then follows with mopping and drying, with the staff member carrying out mopping of corners and edges that the robot cannot reach.
“The technology has been around for years with at-home vacuum robots,” Michael Harris, contracts director at Medirest, explained. “We have mapped locations within the hospital and scheduled for the robot to work at specified times. The robot then gets to work alongside a fellow human colleague.
“It can also map itself to remember obstacles like pillars, for example, and it understands that there are people around and kindly asks them to step aside.” The introduction of Hanzel is part of a continuing focus on delivering innovation across the trust.
Hanzel uses significantly less water compared to a traditional scrubber drier (in the region of 70%).
Chemical use is lower as a result and, where possible, diamond pads are used to clean which reduce the chemicals required to clean floor areas
Claudette Briscoe, domestic manager, said staff and the public have really taken a shine to Hanzel.
“There was a bit of a learning curve because he is operated by an iPad, but we all quickly got used to him and how he works,” she said.
“He works two shifts a day, one during the day and one at night, and the public, nurses and anyone else who comes through the main entrance take an interest in him. He also does some party tricks like singing Christmas songs and ‘Incy Wincy Spider’!”
“We’re really excited to have introduced Hanzel to both sites,” Michael finished. “We are already seeing the benefits and hope everyone agrees they are a great addition to the teams.”
