It’s every patient’s nightmare - go to hospital for a routine procedure and then become infected with a potentially deadly superbug.
Last month Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised a “deep clean” of every National Health Service hospital in England to rid them of killer infections.
But this morning the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in Kent is facing the possibility of criminal action after outbreaks of Clostridium Difficile that killed around 90 patients at its hospitals.
A Healthcare Commission report said appalling hygiene, a shortage of nurses and poor management at the trust were all to blame.
Health Secretary Alan Johnson said the findings were a scandal but said they did not reflect the state of other hospitals across the country.
What do you think? Have you experienced poor hygiene in an NHS hospital? Do you fear catching an infection during a hospital stay?
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6 comments so far
Each ward should be closed in turn and ‘fogged’ for 24 hours with antibacterial/antiviral spray. The fogging technique will reach every part of floor, walls, ceiling - even into air vent ducting. See ‘Fogging.com’ or ‘Advicecompany.co.uk’ for details
- Posted by ChasI am not involved with either, just think it’s the right thing to do now.
This is reflective of other hospitals. The health service is swimming with money which just gets wasted on supporting tiers of managers shuffling papers at the expense of domestics and other staff who actually do the work. Throwing more money at the H.S isn’t the answer - the management structures and beaurocracy want sorting out.
- Posted by Lucy PassSadly in my experience this is not unusual. With ageing relatives I have seen not just filthy wards but poor hygiene practice in at least three different hospitals in the UK: not just dirt and dust left under beds for days on end or dirty cups and plates left by patients’ bedsides, but patients vomiting onto their bedclothes being ignored by nurses while they have a natter together (obviously not a medical meeting as they were laughing and joking).Having antiseptic handwash at hospital entrances for visitors is not going to stop this kind of neglect!
- Posted by BeeksMy 84-year-old aunt lives in Maidstone and she has spoken very highly of the treatment she’s received in the hospitals there. But she was in for eye surgery, so perhaps she couldn’t see the filth.
- Posted by JuneThe NHS is the world’s third largest employer after the Chinese army and the Indian State Railways - a grotesquely inefficient and obsolete Socialist relic in a supposedly “advanced” country. It is an arthritic dinosaur and no amount of political posturing or truckloads of money tipped down its throat will make it efficient. The only solution is for politicians to grasp the nettle, break it up and introduce proper management techniques as used in large and profitable plcs. Step up, Dave, and do something useful for the country? Maggie freed up the economy and gave Brown his “economic miracle”. Dave can do the same for the health service if he can face down the squealing Islington set and get on with the job.
- Posted by Mike TThank you. Very important topic in the US as well. It is a serious concern. I believe, and research suggests, that essential oils may have something to offer medicine in the future to treat superbugs. Please see my recent blog about MRSA. Dr Jane Buckle’s excellent book, Clinical Aromatherapy, second edition, Churchill Livingstone, 2003, has a chapter on Infection which discusses some of the research on this topic. While more clinical research is needed and is being done, some lives are at stake right now.
- Posted by Joan BariceRespectfully, E. Joan Barice, MD, MPH
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