NHS And Hygiene

The new campaign promoted by the NHS connects the concepts of CLEAN + SAFE + HEALTHY. A laudable ethic, but this smacks of suggesting action is being taken when in fact nothing gets done. Wasting money through advertising when spending money on positive action is avoided. The days of the ward matron are long gone and control in the wards is lost. Washing hands before and after visiting patients may contain the spread of disease to some small extent, but hygiene begins with the shoes being worn into the hospital and the clothes that are worn. Even hospital staff walk around outside the hospital wearing clothes that are then worn back into the hospital. Ward clothes and street clothes are the same. Walking through the streets will inevitably pick up all sorts of debris. Dogs' mess even if the bulk is removed will leave a residue on the pavement or elsewhere. Essentially invisible, but germs cannot be seen. Hospitals and doctors' surgeries are filled with people suffering from the effects of 'bugs'. Visiting hours in a hospital used to be fixed and access to the hospital was restricted. This ensured a higher level of security that no longer exists. The public is allowed to wander through a hospital as though it were a railway station there is no control whatsoever.

There is more security at an airport
than in the largest of hospitals
 

Amongst the least safe places to congregate must be doctors' surgeries and hospitals. Mingling with unwell people just isn't a good idea. Even facing a doctor in a consulting room is potentially dangerous. There is no way of knowing who has already been in the same room and sat in the same chair as the next or later patient infected with who knows what? The carrier of disease is not always infected with what they carry and a subsequent visit to hospital (for any reason) potentially spreads disease very fast and very, very efficiently. Hospitals are filled with unwell people, recovering from operations and all sorts of treatment. They are all vulnerable and offered no protection. Simply washing hands is effectively doing nothing to face up to a real issue. It lulls people into the sense that action is being taken. It's dishonest. These days of killers walking among us, and to no longer control movement within a hospital, combine to create a very worrying scenario. And STILL no real action is being taken. It promotes a failure to address problems. It fails the sick and vulnerable. Cleaning in hospitals can be effected by the auxiliary staff. These same people can also serve food at mealtimes. A disaster waiting to happen. Cleaning staff are set targets with possibly one cleaning towel. This towel quickly gets dirty but is not replaced. Dirt and germs get moved about and the possibility of contaminating a clean area becomes a reality. The most worrying aspect is this cynical approach to 'dealing' with very serious problems and the very cavalier attitude. This haughty disregard of these life and death issues. People are dying in hospitals and blame is obviously being aimed at the public. The suggestion is that the hospitals are blameless. This is not likely to be the attitude of professional health care staff, but administrative and management circles. The same people who can determine what supplies are necessary without consulting ward sisters or any trained and knowledgeable staff. The cost of agency nurses and doctors cuts budgets to the bone necessitating short cuts and poor working practices. Why does this situation occur?

Mismanagement

and

basic ineptitude