Last week on my blog I wrote:I would love to hear David Cameron announce that every hospital will launder uniforms on site and that it will become an instantly dismissible offence for hospital staff to be seen outside of a hospital in uniform. This would state that we would almost wipe out MRSA overnight and stop the endless deaths and disablements caused by bacteria which have thrived in an NHS where everyone is under pressure
The announcement made by Gordon Brown yesterday on MRSA was not a new one. The announcement that matrons would be able to remove contracts from poor cleaners was in itself a re-cyled announcement, made many months ago.
I would still like to see David Cameron get onto the stage at the Blackpool conference and declare an intention to wipe out MRSA, but then go on to demonstrate that he understands how to do it.
David, are you listening?Look at the best practice deployed by the Royal Marsden – the lowest MRSA rate in the country; all uniforms are laundered on site; and no member of staff travels in or out of the hospital in their uniform.
I worked in a similar hospital – I had seven uniforms with my name on. When I went into work I gave my name to the man behind the hatch, he handed me one of my uniforms, I went in to the locker room, changed and went onto my ward.
Nothing incenses me more than seeing a young woman leaning over a fruit and veg display in a supermarket with a nappied toddler on her hip, in a nurses uniform. Is she on her way into or out of work?
Washing hands should be a mantra backed by discipline. Hospital visiting should be severely restriced, and then two visitors only at a bed at any one time – at a bed, not on a bed.
Open visiting in wards, allowing visitors to arrive at any time of day or night, unrestricted in numbers increases the amount of bacteria brought into and out of a hospital.
Only recently I visited a hospital and there were seven visitors around one bed, apparently they had been there most of the day. Half were lounging on the bed. I wanted to say “get off that bed now” but I had to remind myself that I am no longer a nurse in a hospital with high standards.
Unrestricted visiting means that ward cleaners are constantly inhibited and interrupted from doing their cleaning. When they have cleaned, it doesn’t stay that way for very long because of the amount of traffic.
Ward cleaners used to be an integral part of ward staff and take a pride in how their ward looked. Now contract cleaners are moved form ward to ward with no responsibility or pride in where they have just been and no bond with staff or patients. There is no such thing anymore as the ward cleaner who bring s a little sunshine into the life of a long stay patient with a familiar chit chat.
We should scrap targets. Targets put wards and staff under pressure and distort basic hospital priorities of cleanliness and compassion, in to political priorities of meeting quotas.
So, it’s easy really. On site laundering, an offence to wear uniforms outside of the hospital, restricted visiting, respect for the hospital environment from visitors, frequent handwashing dedicated ward cleasners – and scrap targets. MRSA thrashed overnight.
Go for it David. You become the real politician of conviction and show Gordon Brown up to be Prime Minister of duplicity and spin.
It’s yours for the taking now.
Things have moved on since yesterday Nadine, we are now going to get a new quango called Ofcare.Not only are the government throwing bucket loads of money at the NHS with no great improvement, they are now going to throw even more away on this quango. Are we the finest country in the world, or perhaps I should rephrase that: are we the country that are subject to the most fines (financial) in the world.Ofcare will have the powers to fine hospitals and close down wards.Great idea, less money and fewer beds for patients, how inspiring! The best and most effective ideas (whether new or old) are those that are the simplest, as is yours on uniforms.
What a load of ………..sound common sense. Well done.
Hi Nadine, My son was a patient at the University College Hospital, London earlier this month. Let me tell you what I observed. I went to the loo where the seat was soaked with urine and the sanitary bin full and overflowing. I was washing my hands when a cleaner shuffled in, looked left at the wall, then right. She did not look in the loos. She then turned around and shuffled out where she had her cleaning trolley, she shuffled along the corridor with it.
There was an immense pile of dirty crockery in the ward kitchen and I wanted to make a drink so I asked a nurse for some rubber gloves to get stuck in. She told me the cleaner would do it shortly. The cleaner arrives, handpicks which crockery to wash (nothing used by patient’s family. With a dishcloth in her hand, she left the remaining dirty plates and mugs and washed around them. suffice it to say that watching her wash them, I would not want to eat off them.
My son’s bedside cubicle had a large sample of stale urine left in it. He was supposed to use that for his personal belongings. Parents complained that when they offered to move from their seat to give cleaners easier access around the bed, the cleaner ignored them and said it wasn’t necessary, so the area was not cleaned.
Regarding restricting hospital visitors, I saw a very large number of exotically dressed Eastern Europeans in the hospital lobby and my curiosity got the better of me so I asked one of the woman where they came from. She said they were Polish Romany gypsies, that her mother had been admitted with heart problems. On one day,she told me there were 100 of them of all ages waiting to visit the sick women. There must have been 30 or 40 the day I saw them. She told me they had travelled from around the country, fearing the worst, but thankful to God that she had pulled through. I have no idea how many visited her bedside at any one time.
And why is it not mandatory for everyone to wash their hands with sterile cleaning fluids when they enter a ward? This was mandatory on our cruise last summer, the staff were fanatical about it, following us with their dispensers.
What is your view on this Nadine? The ward nurse told me they had considerable difficulty getting cleaners.
Hospitals are disgusting and what you say is sound common sense as regards uniforms, although I disagree with restricting visiting times. Whilst rules must be followed – such as no people on beds, a limit on numbers, hand washing upon entry etc – patients benefit from company and visitors often perform vital non-medical tasks (such as getting drinks, aiding feeding etc) thereby taking strain away from staff.
In my all too great experience of hospitals I would not have coped without visitors staying most of the day, and indeed it was my visitors who did more cleaning than the cleaners and staff (as well as remind nurses to wash their hands, insist on clean sheets, get bandages changed etc).
A big problem is the lack of space; I have been in wards where there is not even room for the hospital chair to fit between the beds. I also find doctors often do not wash their hands between patients when doing the rounds, and their ties are also frequently in contact with patients. Curtains are always being touched and most look like they’ve not been washed since being put up circa 1963.
The future and answer is a system where patients are in isolated rooms instead of open wards, there is adequate space for multiple visitors (maybe even for one to stay as is common in France), and wards where there is an MRSA outbreak are closed for deep cleaning (which should occur every so often anyway as a precaution). Staff not washing hands or meeting strict hygiene rules should be dismissed, they could even have disposable aprons to change between patients. Matrons should be able to dismiss cleaning contractors also. Visitors must meet hygiene requirements as well of course.