We have been looking into an issue about the cleanliness of our hospitals and have got into correspondence with Tim Yeo MP who has been very helpful in getting our message to the Health Secretary. We have also started to correspond with The Prime Minister (Gordon Brown) and The leader of the Opposition (David Cameron) and also the leader of the Liberal Democrats Party (Nick Clegg). Below please find the correspondence we have sent to received from Tim Yeo MP:

Mr T. Yeo (South Suffolk MP)

Houses of Parliament

London

 

Dear Mr Yeo,

I am writing to you on behalf of Babergh Tenants Forum, we are a group of Tenants of Babergh District Council, who work together for the good of all people who live in Council accommodation in Babergh.

According to our records two of our members have been in touch with you about the cleanliness of our hospitals and the problem of MRSA and other viruses in them. I am now writing to you to ask a number of questions with regards to this issue, as this affects everyone.

 

1. As far as we can understand this, the problem started in the early 1980's shortly after the use of cleaning disinfectant was stopped. It was decided that disinfectant was not effective in the control of infection, so how can it be explained that there were no MRSA cases when this was in use?
2. There are many hospitals that are affected by this problem and nothing seems to be effective in combating this. Is it possible that you could let us know what steps are being taken in the use of disinfectant or other possibilities of combating this problem?
3. In the media, we hear about deep cleaning programmes, but as far as this is understood, this is only effective until patients enter the deep cleaned ward and then the possibility is that the virus is back in. What is the use of spending all this money on deep cleaning when the wards should be thoroughly cleaned every day anyway.
4. When the Domiciliary staff were employed by the hospital, they were trained by the hospital and senior staff, with full training programs and monitoring. Since all the cleaning has been tendered out to contractors there has been no one to account to for training and specialist cleaning. How is the training of Domiciliary staff monitored?
5. When an outbreak of a virus is experienced in a hospital, there seems to be a knee jerk reaction to the cleaning issue and it is suddenly blamed on all the cleaners etc., is there a monitored programme for Nurses and Doctors who go in and out of wards all day, bringing germs etc. with them?
6. It is well known that hospitals can't be totally virus free, by the very nature of what they have to treat, but they can control these things by simple hygiene when treating patients, both by hand washing or wearing gloves etc.

 

We would be very grateful if you could answer these questions, so that we can report back to our tenants and help us to raise the standards of health and hygiene in our hospitals. It will also help to allay the fears of people who have to go into hospital, if they understand how these things work then they can help the hospital get the standards back.

Letter from Dept.Of Health
 

 

Mr T. Yeo (South Suffolk MP)

Houses of Parliament

London

 

Dear Mr Yeo,

 

Thank you for forwarding on the letter from Ann Keen MP (Dated 18^th June 2008); I am very grateful for all you have done for me in gathering this information. I would like to make a few points on her letter and wondered if you could either reply yourself or ask her to reply for me.

 

In her letter, she said:

 

‘Patients have a right to clean and safe care, wherever and whenever they are treated by the NHS’.

 

Whilst I firmly believe this is right and agree with the statement, we all know that in reality this fundamental right is often forgotten, due to staffing levels and time restrictions.

 

It was interesting to read that 94% of the intensive hospital clean is complete by the various Trusts, but this was only a ‘Kick Start’ for the NHS and hospitals must build on this. It seems from reports from the media, the internet and newly discharged patients; this is not happening as originally planned and some hospitals are not taking it seriously enough. Reading in her letter I was wondering if the healthcare inspection team will be doing spot checks or planned and informed checks? Or is it just a case of monitoring and reading reports from Trusts?

 

I also downloaded and read the report that was suggested by Ms. Keen and was very happy at the data covering October to December 2007. But I wonder what resources are available to bring this figure down even more? It is common knowledge that disinfectant is no longer used in hospitals for cleaning, so perhaps she could say what is being used to clean the equipment, furniture and floors.

 

According to her letter, a further £270 million pounds is going to be spent over the next 3 years, this seems a tremendous amount of money to spend keeping hospitals clean, but it is a waste if we, as patients and visitors have no idea what to do to help in the battle against HCAIs.

 

As a matter of interest I enquired at our local animal health centre about the disinfectant mats and how they manage with trolleys and other wheeled furniture, they said that as far as they were concerned there were no problems with it at all, and disabled people managed very well too, their mats are only dampened with disinfectant and not swimming in it, like on farms.

 

As I explained in my letter, people walk into the hospital without realising what they have walked in on the way, then drop a book or something and pick it up and put it on the table, bed, chair or cabinet. Afterwards the patient then picks it up along with the germs and after using it they then put it down and eat, not thinking about whatever was on the item that fell on the floor, or washing their hands, it’s so easy to innocently infect yourself. This could so easily be prevented with a mat at the front door.

 

Please don’t think that I am trying to be argumentative, I am trying to answer questions that are asked of me all the time, trying to advise people on health and welfare and how best to help the health service in their battle against these terrible infections.