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Link: BBC NEWS
A hospital that had complaints about mice has been called "a disgrace" in a critical report by a patient group. The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital's Public and Patient Involvement Forum said there was "poor cleanliness" when it inspected Clyst and Tavy wards. Two days ago, the hospital was the only one in the region to have increased rates of the superbug MRSA. The hospital said cleanliness was a "high priority" and that issues raised in the report were being addressed.
Link: Public Finance Magazine
Unison has called on NHS trusts to employ more cleaners after it was revealed that around half of hospitals are falling behind in efforts to cut infections with the MRSA ‘superbug’. Health minister Jane Kennedy said she was disappointed that the incidence of infection with the drug-resistant bacterium had risen to 3,580 in April–September 2005 compared with 3,525 a year earlier. The 20 trusts most likely to miss the target of cutting infections by 50% by 2008 will be visited by teams of hygiene experts. Three trusts — Sandwell, Northumbria and Aintree — had volunteered to be the first to receive help, although they did not have the greatest problems. But Unison’s head of health Karen Jennings urged trusts to get ‘back to basics’, saying: ‘Screening, “swat” teams and targets are all well and good, but cleaners are the frontline troops in the fight against MRSA.
Link: CEN News
TELEVISION viewers will see what happened when victims of MRSA descended on hospitals for an impromptu clean-up.
Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge was one of 10 hospitals across the country visited by around 100 people who had been affected by the superbug.
The hospitals were chosen because of their MRSA rates.
Addenbrooke's was revealed as having the second highest MRSA rate last year for the second year running, although hospital-wide campaigns are ongoing to target it.
As reported in the News last year, BBC Three took a team of volunteers carrying mops and dusters into Addenbrooke's and they began to clean in public areas of the hospital.
At the time, Addenbrooke's said it was "surprised" by the action and had its own systems in place for monitoring cleanliness throughout the hospital. It also described fighting MRSA and other hospital infections as a "long-term commitment".
Link: RedOrbit
VICTIMS of the MRSA superbug have carried out a cleaning blitz on hospitals.
Armed with mops, buckets and dusters, they marched into 10 of the country's worst hit buildings...to show how dirty they really are.
The cleaning corps - former victims of the flesh-eating bug and relatives of patients who have died - were shocked at the levels of filth they found before being thrown out by security staff.
BBC3 reporter Tim Samuels, who organised the mass clean-up for a shock documentary, said: "Mops were covered in filth after just a few minutes."
The teams also visited a slaughterhouse to compare its hygiene standards with hospitals.
After seeing the shock footage, germ expert Professor Hugh Pennington said the abattoir had "a higher ethos of hygiene than the average NHS hospital".
He added: "Anyone could go rolling around in dog muck and then walk into any hospital they like.
"In an abattoir everything is sterilised, nobody can enter without a health certificate from their doctor and, of course, would have to wear protective clothing.
"The majority of the 5,000 deaths from MRSA each year could be prevented if the NHS adopted a more robust approach to cleaning."
Link: The Sun Online
A FORMER NHS cleaning supervisor has lost a leg — after catching the deadly MRSA superbug in his own hospital.
Dad-of-two Norman Turner, 42, contracted the disease while recovering from a routine operation to replace an artery.
Last night he slammed doctors, nurses and cleaning staff at Blackburn Royal Infirmary, Lancashire, for “appalling” standards of hygiene.
Norman, who worked for 15 years at the hospital — where he helped to train staff to combat MRSA — said: “I was perfectly healthy and strong when I went into hospital and expected to make a full recovery.
“Instead I have been disabled for the rest of my life. I am still in shock, devastated. I came close to dying in intensive care — all because of MRSA.
“The attitude of staff towards cleanliness seems to have dropped to a worrying level.”
Norman spoke out just days after watchdogs found that hygiene guidelines were still being breached at the three main hospitals in the area.
Link: NHS Fail To Meet Cleanliness Checks.
Many English hospitals are failing to meet cleanliness standards, according to a shock report today. As many as two thirds of hospitals failed inspections by the the Healthcare Commission.
The findings are particularly damning as inspectors used unannounced spot checks to test claims that hospitals are getting cleaner. Official league tables are based on self-assessment.
Inspectors concluded that all but 33 hospitals had room for improvement. Some 100 hospitals were inspected.
Some of the worst offenders were psychiatric hospitals and private hospitals.
The investigation failed to find evidence that private contractors were to blame for poor cleanliness. Instead they pointed to overall working relationships, regardless of whether cleaners were employed in-house or not.
Link: NHS Fail To Meet Cleanliness Checks.
Many English hospitals are failing to meet cleanliness standards, according to a shock report today. As many as two thirds of hospitals failed inspections by the the Healthcare Commission.
The findings are particularly damning as inspectors used unannounced spot checks to test claims that hospitals are getting cleaner. Official league tables are based on self-assessment.
Inspectors concluded that all but 33 hospitals had room for improvement. Some 100 hospitals were inspected.
Some of the worst offenders were psychiatric hospitals and private hospitals.
The investigation failed to find evidence that private contractors were to blame for poor cleanliness. Instead they pointed to overall working relationships, regardless of whether cleaners were employed in-house or not.
Link: icSolihull
TWO cleaners have been sacked following a recent BBC Panorama programme revealing 'frightening' lapses in cleaning standards at Heartlands Hospital. The three star hospital, which with Solihull Hospital, makes up the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust was shown to break a number of routine rules designed to stop infections. A director at Heartlands Hospital said: "We can confirm that two of the cleaners highlighted in the Panorama programme have since been dismissed by Initial Hospital Services. Initial has assured us that any other staff who appeared in the programme have been disciplined as appropriate and thoroughly re-trained so they meet the high standards we expect here." The programme showed cleaners who the BBC described as "great at making things look clean - without actually cleaning them as they should." The programme makers said they witnessed: "cleaners who routinely break basic rules designed to stop infections spreading; and some medical staff who ignore isolation room procedures and risk spreading serious infection around their hospital."
Link: BBC NEWS
Two cleaners at a Birmingham hospital have been sacked after an investigation into poor standards of hygiene was prompted by a BBC documentary. An undercover Panorama reporter found basic rules, put in place to combat the spread of conditions like MRSA, were being broken at Heartlands Hospital. Cleaners were witnessed using a single bucket of water to clean a whole ward. The sacked pair are employed by Initial Hospital Services. Eight other cleaners have received warnings. Chief executive of Birmingham Heartlands and Solihull NHS Trust, Mark Goldman, told BBC WM: "Initial, who provide the cleaning services here at Heartlands Hospital, have been through a full disciplinary process.
Link: HEN News : Harlow Star
HOSPITAL bosses have criticised the BBC after volunteers armed with mops and dusters walked in unannounced as part of a new show aimed at highlighting the problem of MRSA. Ten people walked into Harlow's Princess Alexandra Hospital and nine other hospitals across the country for a BBC Three documentary on dirty hospitals and the prevalence of MRSA. The volunteers, who have all been affected by the superbug in some way, received training from infection control nurses before entering PAH with a TV crew with the intention of performing an impromptu clean-up. The hospitals were chosen as they were all deemed to be underachieving on MRSA by the Healthcare Commission. However, a PAH NHS Trust spokesman said they only got as far as the main corridor beyond the front entrance before they were challenged by PAH's real cleaners and walked out. Police were called to ensure they left.
Link: EDP24 News.
A group of campaigners from Norfolk were part of a swoop on some of the country's hospitals in a bid to highlight MRSA. On Sunday, about 100 people who have been affected by MRSA, armed with mops and dusters, visited 10 hospitals from some of the country's worst-hit trusts. The impromptu clean-up was part of a BBC Three documentary to be shown this autumn raising awareness of dirty hospitals and the prevalence of MRSA. All took part to register their disgust at MRSA rates and the state of hospital cleanliness. Among them was Keith Hall, who set up a Norwich branch of MRSA Support after his wife Anne died in 2003 after contracting the condition in the Norfolk and Norwich Univer-sity Hospital. Along with other branch members, he visited Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, although the nearest hospital involved in the programme was Addenbrooke's in Cambridge.
Link: Herald Sun: Call for hygiene squads [18aug05].
Union state secretary Jeff Jackson said Victorian hospitals could soon face soaring superbug levels, similar to those in Britain where MRSA is suspected of causing 5000 deaths. He said the Government should employ a team of 10 specialists to do spot checks on health workers and hospital equipment. But Health Minister Bronwyn Pike said the Government already employed 200 infection control experts and would not consider hygiene squads. "All our hospitals do have very high standards of cleanliness and they are audited very, very regularly, there are independent audits and internal audits," she said.
Link: The Herts Advertiser - part of Herts24.
ACTION has been taken by health chiefs after complaints that a hospital cleaner was failing to carry out procedures designed to prevent the spread of the superbug MRSA. A nurse, who wants to remain anonymous, highlighted the issue of a cleaner employed by contractors Medirest after the woman had worked in a barrier ward at St Albans City Hospital where a patient was suffering from MRSA. The nurse said the cleaner has been in the infected area without wearing the correct protective overall. She had then gone on to clean Sopwell Ward in the hospital's Runcie Wing with the same mop which she then washed in a kitchen sink. The nurse claimed the cleaner involved in the incident had been reprimanded two months ago for sleeping in one of the hospital beds. The incident was reported to the hospital management and an incident form was filled in.
Link: the super bug
Mmmmm .... Conclusive proof re hanky? As for the expert - is his analysis biased by being a disinfectant manufacturer?
A Crippled old woman has told how she almost lost her life to MRSA, after dropping her hankie on a hospital floor and catching the super bug in her nose. Christina Norman, 81, only survived the infection because of five weeks' intensive disinfection. Her case has led to an expert calling for a ban on cotton hankies in UK hospitals, because wards are so dirty. Christina, of Newquay, Cornwall, said: "It's coming to something when the most dangerous thing about getting old is going to hospital and dropping your hankie. "I only dropped it on the floor for a second: when I got home my nose was bleeding and I had got bronchitis: They took a scrape and I was diagnosed with MRSA." MRSA expert Dr Chris Malyszewisz said: "It could have come from the hankie: If you take a cotton hankie into a UK hospital your chances of getting contaminated with any bug rise. People don't realise how easy it is to get contaminated. I would never take a cotton hankie into a hospital."
Link: Times Online.
A HOSPITAL’S decision to hire an art curator days after it was criticised for cancelled operations and a poor MRSA record has been condemned by nurses and patients. Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge has placed an advertisement for the £37,000 a year post in today’s edition of The Guardian, and it also appeared in the Public Agenda section of The Times. But patient groups believe that the money could be better spent on nursing staff and cleaners. The Patients Association said that the decision to recruit an art curator was “amazing”. Simon Williams, policy director at the Patients Association, said: “Most art co-ordinators at hospitals are volunteers. Not only could you probably employ a couple of extra nurses on this salary, I would rather see the money spent on more cleaners.”
Link: News & Star.
CARLISLE’S Cumberland Infirmary is to be comprehensively “deep cleaned” just weeks after a health watchdog highlighted dirty conditions which were putting patients’ health at risk. Hospital chiefs today insisted that the deep clean was not as a result of any investigations. It was taking the opportunity to clean all areas of the hospital while refurbishment was taking place. Patients will be moved into the infirmary’s temporary Mulberry Unit to make way for work teams who will redecorate and strip clean wards in a bid to beat hospital acquired infections such as the MRSA superbug. Managers have not spelled out the likely impact of the clean-up operation on the availability of beds. The clean-up will get underway in the next two weeks.
Link: Unions emphasize importance of cleaning hospital rooms.
Brockville General Hospital and St. Vincent de Paul Hospital joined an Ontariowide campaign Tuesday to spread awareness about the threat of hospital-acquired infections, or superbugs. Housekeeping staff at the two hospitals took part in a demonstration - launched by the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) - with a mobile hospital room set up at the Memorial Centre to highlight the importance of proper cleaning to reduce the risk of spreading infectious diseases. "We've been trying to get the attention of the Ministry of Health about this serious problem," said Michael Hurley, president of OCHU/CUPE, at the Memorial Centre on Tuesday. Recent outbreaks of VRE (vancomycin-resistant enterococci) and MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus) at two Niagara region hospitals and an MRSA infection at Kingston General Hospital, where 30 patients were placed in isolation after contracting the bacterium, prompted CUPE to takes its message on the road. Hurley said hospitals forced to find "efficiencies" by cutting cleaning staff is a dangerous precedent in an age where these "superbugs" are becoming more prevalent. "We could save 2,000 lives if we pay more attention," said Hurley, referring to figures he said make infectious diseases the fourth-biggest killer in Canada.
Link: Scotsman.com
SNP health spokeswoman Shona Robison said more cleaning needed to be done in clinical areas of the hospital to protect patients. She added: "It is very difficult to keep public areas decontaminated. You would have to have someone there cleaning all the time, which is not feasible. What is feasible though is to direct cleaning to clinical areas because that is where the most vulnerable patients are." However, NHS Lothian chief executive James Barbour denied that the hospital had to change its approach to tackling MRSA. He said: "MRSA testing is carried out on a regular and scientific basis in our hospitals."
Link: Hampstead and Highgate Express.
In a letter to hospital chiefs, Dr Gaffin said: "While your medical staff - doctors and nurses alike - are prepared to do their utmost for patients within the hospital, the underlying management systems are simply not up to the demands of the 21st century." He added: "That MRSA exists within the hospital does not surprise me." Royal Free bosses ordered the blood splashes to be removed after receiving Dr Gaffin's complaint but admitted that they do not have round-the-clock cleaners on duty. Lorna Donegan, the hospital's divisional director of medical specialities, said: "At the moment there are some problems maintaining hygiene standards in A&E since the department does not currently have 24 hour access to domestic staff."
Link: Queen's speech 2005: Unison - Focus on public services welcome.
Unison's general secretary Dave Prentice has welcomed much of the Government's legislative programme set out in the Queen's Speech. Mr Prentice commented: "This is a hefty programme for a third term. We welcome the emphasis on public services, promoting opportunity and fairness, tackling MRSA and eliminating child poverty. "We support choice and diversity, but would want to make sure that that is not a carte blanche for more privatisation. And we are pleased that the corporate manslaughter bill, which fell off the Parliamentary timetable, has been brought back."
Link: Telegraph | Opinion.
Hospitals used to have strictly controlled, limited visiting. Now large numbers of visitors are permitted - many of them MRSA carriers, albeit unaffected because they are not ill or compromised. This situation may endanger patients, sometimes interfere with the working of the hospital staff and can lead to the abuse of the staff and the hospital's facilities. I, and many of my midwifery, nursing and medical colleagues, have been deeply hurt and had our confidence undermined by the oversimplification of the MRSA issue, which is aimed mostly at hospital trusts. What is needed is a return to tried and tested old-fashioned cleaning rituals organised by in-house NHS staff, some discipline regarding visitors and visiting, as well as remembering to wash our hands.
Link: icWales
For that, she is very grateful and wishes to thank the hospital with all her heart for the high standards of medical care. But it is the fear of MRSA that makes us terrified of seeing loved ones in a hospital these days and she was totally horrified by what she witnessed when the ward was being cleaned one day. A cleaner entered the ward with a cloth in hand and proceeded to drag it from the sinks to the beds' food trays and then to the clinical waste bin, sloppily dragging it along. She continued until she had rounded the whole room, happily transferring any germs from one place to another without stopping. My friend was horrified, as were the other mums on the same ward who all looked on in disbelief and disgust. The nurses' routine was stringent, she says. They always washed their hands upon entering the ward and before moving on to the next bed. The cleaning staff on the other hand seemed to follow no rules of hygiene whatsoever. Worse still, they seemed to make the room dirtier than cleaner as the same cloth was used on a sink, a tray and a bin.
Link: Chemsol Consultancy Disinfectant Research.
The expert used by some media for their MRSA testing has recently spoken about poor quality cleaning products. He may well be right but is this the voice of impartial science? Well maybe not ...... This from his web site
Over the last 14 years, Chemsol™ has researched the latest organic and inorganic molecules in an effort to redevelop the unique disinfectant that has evolved today. Dodecylamine material as a base material was the foundation for our research. Initially developed and manufactured by German and Swedish chemists, this molecule even when modified has the ability to destroy not only the cell wall that microbes possess, but also the genetic material. The current market has dictated the sales of cleaners’ disinfectants UK and worldwide by the availability of Benzalkonium Chloride and more recently the dimmer of this molecule. As microbes have the capacity to change over time, the share index will reflect the changing chemistry needed to keep up with these changes. The market for the NHS and food industry is set to change in the next 1-3 years with the advent of this new chemistry and the outcome of our new research. This trend will show marked changes in the chemical market with inventors pushing to advance the disinfectant market with new innovative chemistry.
Link: UNISON
The Conservatives launched a 10-point plan to deal with MRSA infection as part of their election pledges today – but UNISON promptly said the programme smacked of "crocodile tears" as it was Tory cuts that helped foster the problem in the first place. "It's a bit rich to hear the Tories bleating on about MRSA when they are responsible for letting the superbugs loose into our hospital wards by cutting and privatising cleaning services," said UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis. "It is all down to money with the Tories - and they've always put price before patients," added Mr Prentis Michael Howard's proposals centre on matrons being put in charge of hospital cleaning and having the power to close wards and operating theatres if they know they are infected with superbugs. The �52m plan would also require hospitals to publish details of infection levels so patients could know which hospitals were the cleanest. "We'll give them the right to choose to be treated in those hospitals," said the Tory leader. "There is nothing inevitable about the superbug crisis." But the idea doesn't fly, said UNISON.
Link: Mrsa: 24 Mar 2005: Written answers (TheyWorkForYou.com).
Lembit Opik (Montgomeryshire, LDem) Hansard source
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment the Government have made of whether relationship exists between MRSA and the privatisation of cleaning activities in NHS hospitals.
Melanie Johnson (Welwyn Hatfield, Lab) Hansard source
Analysis carried out by the Department found that there was no statistically significant relationship between the contracting out of cleaning work and methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) rates in national health service trusts. However, the impact of cost-cutting programmes during the 1980s and 1990s did lead to a reduction in the number of cleaning staff and expenditure on cleaning. The problem of MRSA has developed over some time. Between 1993 and 1997, the percentage of S aureus bacteraemias that were MRSA increased from four per cent. to 30 per cent.. It is now settling at just over 40 per cent. The latest data for MRSA bloodstream infections (April-September 2004) show a 6 per cent. drop on the corresponding period in 2003. Several initiatives are already improving hospital cleanliness and infection control. These are summarised in "Towards cleaner hospitals and lower rates of infections".
Link: East Anglian Daily Times.
MOTHER who gave birth to her daughter at Ipswich Hospital has spoken of her concerns about the standard of cleanliness at the facility. Jaylin Kidds, 23, from Hitcham, near Stowmarket, spoke out after hearing about the tragic death of two-day-old Luke Day, who contracted methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) after his birth at the hospital. Miss Kidds, who gave birth to daughter Antonia at the hospital last year, said: "There is not even the basic cleanliness in that hospital that I would have in my own house. "I had a, thankfully healthy, baby girl. But I was appalled by the lack of cleanliness both on the ward and in the bathrooms. "Behind and under my bed was covered in fluff and obviously hadn't seen a vacuum or a mop for weeks. "The bathrooms were dirty and there was blood left in the toilets - in the corner of the floors there were patches of what looked like dried rusty water where they hadn't been cleaned properly. "I had to stay overnight with my daughter and the following morning when I was sitting in bed with her a cleaner came in to the ward I was staying, with one of the automatic industrial cleaners. "He went in a straight line from the door to the end of the ward, paying no attention to anywhere else, such as around or under the beds."
Link: The Sun Newspaper Online - UK's biggest selling newspaper.
KILLER bug MRSA is rife in the hospital where tiny Luke Day became Britain’s youngest victim, The Sun can reveal. We tested different areas of Ipswich Hospital for the bacteria a month after news of Luke’s death emerged. And we found levels of the bug in public areas that were more than SEVEN times what is considered dangerous.
Link: East Anglian Daily Times
MANAGERS at Ipswich Hospital last night insisted they are doing all they can to tackle MRSA after claims that the killer bug still infests the facility. The reassurance comes after a national newspaper reported yesterday how an investigation they had undertaken revealed that the hospital is still plagued by MRSA, six weeks after two-day old baby Luke Day became the youngest victim in Britain. The paper, which carried out its own tests using an expert, reported finding levels almost six times higher than acceptable limits. It claimed that high levels of the bacteria were found on ward doors, in corridors and on patient's toilets and telephones. But a spokeswoman for the hospital said independent inspections show that MRSA rates are falling. She said: "We are doing all we can to reduce this. We are asking everyone on the wards to stop and wash their hands and this message is very strongly given to people who come in to the hospital. We do need the community to work with us. "MRSA is in the community and the hospital is part of the community. About 30% of the population are carriers of MRSA. Controlling infection is a huge priority for us.''
Link: HDA: News: Latest news.
Nurses are not being provided with enough resources and support to cut MRSA "superbug" rates, a new survey suggests. Research conducted by the Nursing Times (NT) found that the majority of nurses want more access to resources in order to deliver improvements in hygiene and infection control The NT has unveiled a major new campaign, Keep It Clean: back nurses to fight infection, which aims to bring together trust managers, visitors, patients and other NHS staff in tackling hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). The survey of 2,000 nurses discovered that "around three out of four nurses do not have access to 24-hours a day, seven days a week cleaning services", while more than a quarter of nurses describe the cleaning services where they work as 'poor' or 'very poor' ". Less than half of the nurses questioned had facilities at their workplace to change in and out of their uniforms and more than three-quarters said they could not get their uniforms washed at an in-house laundry. A further third of nurses reported that bins and sharps containers are allowed to overflow, and two out of five nurses claim they do not have enough time to clean beds, lockers, and change curtains before new patients arrive on the ward.
Continue reading "Nurses speak out on factors that hamper MRSA control" »
Link: this is grimsby
Cleaners at Grimsby's Diana, Princess Of Wales Hospital are urging trust bosses to involve them in the fight against the superbug. Union members say high staff turnover and a shortage of numbers is putting extra pressure on their shoulders. And they say they need to be involved in infection control to help to stem rising MRSA levels. Cleaners at the hospital spoke out on the Government-led Think Clean Day, and the launch of Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Trust's Think Clean Awareness Month. Grimsby Unison branch secretary Ann Moses said: "The NHS must make cleaners part of the infection control team. "It cannot be a coincidence that as the number of cleaners has gone down, the number of cases of MRSA and other hospital acquired infections has gone up.
Link: Times Online - Sunday Times.
And besides, you don’t catch superbugs from dirt. Charming as spotless marble hospital floors might be, the truth of the matter is that MRSA is transmitted from human to human. We may grumble when we come across a dirty hospital, but fluffballs and empty chocolate wrappers, aesthetically displeasing as they may be, don’t directly contribute to the spread of disease. In my experience — which is admittedly limited, though ongoing — the people responsible for any dirt that did (briefly) appear were not patients or staff, but patients’ visitors: it wasn’t the nurses that left used tissues on the floor or brought their honking coughs to intensive care.
Link: Hospitals need housekeepers.
As reported in yesterday's MEN, a survey of 140,000 patients claimed that hospital hygiene was getting worse. Now the director of nursing in Greater Manchester wants to see more traditional cleaning methods brought back, including NHS housekeepers to supervise the work of the cleaners. The survey found that in some Greater Manchester hospitals the number of patents complaining about cleanliness has almost doubled in a year. More people also reported filthy hospital toilets, with Central Manchester and Manchester Children's University Hospitals NHS Trust among the worst in the country - 28 per cent of people questioned there reported they were "not very clean" or "not at all clean" - double the number last year.
Link: Evening Star
A NEW survey by the Healthcare Commission has found that hospitals are getting dirtier rather than cleaner despite efforts to crack down on the MRSA superbug. Ipswich Hospital has, however, received its detailed analysis back from the commission and the results show patients are increasingly happy with the levels of cleanliness they are seeing. Jan Rowsell, spokeswoman for the hospital, said: "The detailed results for our hospital show that we've improved. "These surveys are crucially important to us because they show us what patients really feel about their experience in the hospital. "This year's survey shows that we are getting there with our objectives of making sure that there's a very clean environment for patients."
Link: Times Online.
I DO HOPE that all you hospital cleaners out there are paying attention to Michael Howard. He has a cunning plan which will make hospital wards sparkling clean again. If you vote for him he will bring back “Super Matron”, a redoubtable Hattie Jacques figure with the power to close down wards which she deems too dirty. Then we will have no more MRSA and everyone will live happily ever after. What’s that? Not cynicism, I hope. What do you mean that reinstating matron is not the perfect solution to the MRSA crisis? That sounds like an attitude problem. Perhaps matron needs to crack the whip, then you might knuckle down and do your job more thoroughly. Mr Howard’s hospital rescue plan does not, admittedly, insult the intelligence as much as Tony Blair did when asked to comment recently on dirty hospitals. He breezily replied: “There are good and bad cleaners.” But it does spectacularly miss the point. The reason why hospitals are filthy is simple: they are cleaned by overworked staff on minimum wages using poor equipment who answer to private contract companies which are squeezing their budgets ever tighter as they race to offer the lowest tender.
Link: News.
Cleanliness levels in hospital casualty departments have worsened despite Government pledges to improve standards, according to the largest survey of NHS patients. Less than half of visitors to A&E units last year rated them as "very clean" and satisfaction levels are falling, the poll of 140,000 people found. The findings come as a blow to the Government, just weeks before the election when the NHS is expected to be a central issue for all parties. The survey for the Healthcare Commission, the independent NHS inspection body, found just 45 per cent of patients rated their A&E department as "very clean", a 4 per cent decrease on the previous year. Cleanliness ratings for hospital outpatient departments also fell, from 59 per cent in 2003 to 53 per cent last year.
Link: Belfast Telegraph.
The number of cleaners in Ulster hospitals has been slashed over the last 10 years - despite concerns over soaring superbugs cases, it can be revealed today. Newly-obtained figures show that the Royal Group of Hospitals - Northern Ireland's biggest hospital group - had 565 cleaning staff in 1995, with a full-time total of 365. However, the current overall headcount shows a reduction in the number of cleaners - with a total now of 511 employed along with a full-time tally of 324. According to the latest figures, Belfast City Hospital had 264 cleaners in 1995 and full-time tally of 156 compared to a present-day total of 204 and a full-time total of just 40. A loss of cleaners at the City may take into account the closure of the Jubilee Hospital - but there is concern, nevertheless, that numbers of cleaners have not been significantly increased despite province- wide problems with MRSA.
Link: Scotsman.com
The Tory leader, whose mother-in-law died from MRSA, said: “Nothing speaks as loud of Labour’s failure to improve our NHS. Nothing is as deafening as Mr Blair’s silence on his culpability for the superbug crisis.”
However Dave Prentis, general secretary of the Unison union, said Tory privatisation of cleaning was to blame for the letting MRSA loose in hospitals. “Matrons may do a good job but they are not miracle workers and you can’t clean wards without cleaners,” he said. “Thanks to the Tories we now have half the cleaners in the NHS than we had 20 years ago. “Why should the public trust them now when they starved the NHS of investment, ramped up waiting lists and opened up the NHS to profiteers?”
A short introduction from Dave Roberts
This 12 minute introduction will help you grasp the key facts and the key issues surrounding drug resistant staph aureus (mersa, mursa)
