How a Healthcare Site Brought Its Entrances Up to the Standard of Its Wards

People arriving at a healthcare site are rarely having a good day. They are anxious, often in pain, and they start reading the environment for reassurance from the moment they turn into the car park. When the outside of a building looks neglected and the inside is immaculate, patients do not credit the difference — they take the first impression with them.

This case study looks at how a North West healthcare provider closed that gap. Names and exact figures have been kept general to respect client confidentiality, but the constraints, methods and results are representative of the exterior cleaning No Graffiti Ltd delivers for healthcare organisations across Manchester and the North West.

About the client

The client is a healthcare provider operating a busy site in Greater Manchester with outpatient clinics, a treatment centre and a large visitor car park. The estates and facilities team is responsible for everything from statutory compliance and internal cleaning standards to grounds, parking and the fabric of the buildings.

Internal cleanliness was audited, measured and performing well. The exterior, as is common, was nobody's specific line in the budget.

The challenge

Key pain points

The team knew the outside was letting the site down but had struggled to find a contractor who could work around a site that never closes:

• The approach set the wrong tone. Tagging on the bin store and boundary wall was the first thing visible from the main entrance road.
• Heavy fouling on the entrance canopy. Pigeons had been roosting above the main doors, leaving the walkway beneath stained and unpleasant, and periodically closed for cleaning.
• A car park that looked abandoned after dark. Oil, rubber and traffic film had built up on the decks, and the stairwell was consistently mentioned in patient feedback.
• Nothing could be closed. Ambulance bays, drop-off and accessible parking all had to remain available at all times, which had put off previous contractors.
• Chemicals were a genuine concern. Several elevations sit directly beneath ward windows and ventilation intakes.

The impact of the problem

Exterior appearance was showing up in patient feedback alongside clinical comments, which is a difficult thing to explain internally when the wards themselves are scoring well. There was a safety dimension too: moss on a sloped path to a side entrance had become a slip risk for patients who were already unsteady, and a poorly lit, stained stairwell discouraged people from using the car park at all in the evening.

The solution

Why they chose No Graffiti

The estates team assessed several contractors and selected No Graffiti Ltd on the basis of how the work would be delivered rather than the cleaning itself:

• A worked-out access plan. We proposed working in sections with a written sequence showing which routes stayed open at each stage, rather than asking what could be closed.
• Method chosen for the setting. Chemical-free and low-odour approaches near ward windows and intakes, with stronger products confined to agreed locations and times.
• Water and run-off control. A specific plan for managing wet surfaces on routes used by patients on crutches and in wheelchairs.
• Full accreditation and RAMS. CHAS accreditation, with site-specific method statements covering chemical use and access control.

Implementation: team & resources

The work was phased across several weeks, sequenced so that no part of the site was ever inaccessible.

Phase 1 — Perimeter and bin stores

We started furthest from the clinical areas, removing tagging from the boundary wall, bin stores and service yard. This gave the team a visible improvement on the approach road within the first few days and let both sides settle into the access arrangements before working near the entrance.

Phase 2 — Entrance canopy and walkway

The bird fouling removal was carried out in sections outside peak visiting times, with the walkway sanitised afterwards and a temporary diversion of a few metres rather than a closure. The canopy was cleaned back and the roosting ledges flagged to the estates team for proofing.

Phase 3 — Car park, stairwell and paths

Decks and bays were washed a section at a time, always leaving accessible spaces and the drop-off available. The stairwell was cleaned and the sloped side path treated for moss and algae, which addressed the slip risk as well as the appearance.

The results

The visible change was significant, but the estates team judged the job on whether it caused any operational problem — and it did not.

Client testimonial

Lessons learned & key takeaways

Three key insights

• The exterior is part of the patient experience. People do not separate the car park from the care, however well the wards score.
• Access planning is the deliverable. On a site that never closes, how the work is sequenced matters more than how it is cleaned.
• Some of it is a safety job. Moss on a sloped path to an entrance is a slip risk for exactly the people least able to absorb a fall.

Advice for others

• Do tell your contractor which windows serve wards or clinical space — it should change what they use and when.
• Do phase the work from the perimeter inwards; it builds confidence before anyone works near an entrance.
• Don't accept a plan that requires closing an ambulance bay or accessible parking. It is nearly always avoidable with sectioning.

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