NHS Trust hospital is warned about poor hygiene and infection control practice

NHS trust warned over hygiene breaches

Extract from the Telegraph:

"An NHS trust has been given a warning after inspectors found filthy commodes and bloodstains on a bed rail and wall.

The Healthcare Commission served Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust with an improvement notice over poor practice in tackling infection control.

Thick layers of dust and evidence of poor decontamination procedures for surgical equipment were also found by investigators.

The trust runs three hospitals in south London: the Princess Royal University Hospital, Orpington Hospital and Beckenham Hospital.

The commission carried out an unannounced inspection at the Princess Royal University Hospital on Jan 21 and 22.

It found that the trust was "failing in its duty to provide and maintain a clean and appropriate environment for health care".

Geoff Martin, of the campaign group Health Emergency, said: "Bromley Hospitals has one of the biggest debts anywhere in the country, of almost £100 million.

"They are cutting corners on cleaning because they have been effectively bankrupted by the cost of a PFI deal at the Princess Royal. This is the harsh reality of PFI coming home to roost.""

Patients are left to starve on NHS wards...

Patients left to starve on NHS wards

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"The number released from hospital suffering from malnutrition, nutritional anaemia, or other nutritional deficiencies has risen by 84 per cent in the decade since Labour came to power, from 74,431 in 1997 to 139,127."

"The worst area in the country for malnutrition was the Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust in Greater Manchester, where 4,947 patients were discharged suffering malnourishment, followed by the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, with 2,771, and the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

They were among nearly 50 hospital trusts around the country that discharged more than 1,000 malnourished patients last year.

Meanwhile, it is estimated that the poor quality of hospital food is putting patients off to the extent that 13 million meals are thrown away each year, at an average cost of £2.65 each.

Last year, the health minister Ivan Lewis admitted patients were being starved on wards, with some elderly people given little more than a scoop of mashed potato for lunch.

Others were "tortured" by having meal trays placed out of reach, which they were too weak to pull towards them."

When I was in hospital (Northern General Hospital, Sheffield) for a month last summer, my main complaint about the food was the high salt content of most of the meal choices. - As a steroid victim I need to avoid eating salt and salty food, so I had to rely on friends bringing me food that I could eat.

Single rooms with ensuite bathrooms are planned for 512-bed hospital that will replace 1 of the 3 hospitals run by Maidstone and Tunbridge NHS Trust.

All rooms to be singles at new £228m hospital

Extract from Guardian article:

"The NHS trust at the centre of a Clostridium difficile infection scandal is to build a £228m hospital where every patient will have a separate room with an ensuite bathroom.

The health secretary, Alan Johnson, said yesterday that work would begin early next year on a 512-bed hospital in Pembury, Kent. It will replace one of the three hospitals run by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS trust, where 90 patients were killed by C difficile bacteria during two outbreaks in 2005 and 2006. In a report last month, the Healthcare Commission blamed poor management for failing to instil better hygiene on the wards.

Mr Johnson said the new hospital, built by a consortium led by John Laing, would be the first in England to provide every patient with a single room, offering better isolation of people with infections. He allocated £350,000 for deep-cleaning the trust's hospitals on top of the £720,000 budget it had already received this year for eliminating infection in particular wards."

A good move surely.

Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

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NHS trust hospitals are not taking basic steps to stop the spread of infection

Hospital failings allow superbugs to spread - Telegraph

Extracts:

"Thousands of patients risk contracting potentially deadly superbugs because NHS hospitals are not taking basic steps to stop the spread of infection, research for The Daily Telegraph reveals today.

An independent study of 167 NHS hospital trusts in England found that infection control was in a state of disarray, with hospitals unable to reassure the public that they are screening and isolating enough infected patients.

Only 10 of the trusts surveyed could provide data showing that they had isolated more than 90 per cent of individuals with MRSA - a standard that infection control experts regard as fundamental in the battle against hospital-acquired bugs. "

"Deaths linked to hospital superbugs have increased dramatically.

Government figures show that between 2004 and 2005, the number of deaths recorded as associated with MRSA rose 39 per cent. Those that mentioned Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) rose by 69 per cent. Data from the Office for National Statistics showed that mentions of C. difficile on death certificates rose from 2,247 in 2004 to 3,807 the following year, while mentions of MRSA rose from 1,168 to 1,629."


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)