How clean is your hospital

letsbehonest

I have been visiting my old mum in hospital for the last 3 months virtually every day so I speak with some experience. Basic general cleaning is just not good enough. To keep this brief she has had three doses of C difficiel (this kills elderly people on a regular basis) and has survived each time. During my visits I watch the cleaner and she just does not do the job properly in fact she skives off, Who watches the cleaner I asked the nurses and care assistants? their supervisor I'm told, what medical qualifications/training do they have to assess the effectiveness of the cleaning process ? answer none.
I was told by the cleaner that they are not allowed to use bleach on the floors?????????? they dry mop and use a hand held spray bottle containing a cleaning fluid!!!! I have not seen this used. The medics are keeping my old mum alive but the cleaners are killing her. It is scarey being told that the longer you stay in hospital the more chance you have got of contracting hospital accquired infection. If you visit a loved one regularly in hospital please take some time and observe the cleaning around the beds and the local enviroment, if not satisfied contact the "Infection Control Team"at the hospital it only takes a phone call and they are glad of the information. My mum has been in two different hospitals for 7 months that's a lot of visits, one hospital cleans all the time the other is not good. Allways remember as visitors we walk in all kinds of bugs on our hands and on our clothes and shoes, this adds to the problem

me_and_me_monkeys

Hi, Sorry to hear about your mum. Some hospitals are disgusting. My dad in 1999 caught MRSA from the NHS chiropodist (cut his toenails too short and made them bleed - they weren't sterilised so who knows how many diabetics had the same problem???) anyway eventually he had both his legs amputated, then staff didnt tell the family about the MRSA so I at 30wks pregnant was cleaning him and moving him without proper infection control!. Since then I am a bit of a clean freak in hospitals - I take my own handwash, antibac wipes, I insist on seeing staff wash their hands before they touch me, I clean my trolly and counters at least once a day, wear shower shoes in the bathrooms.

One dr put a canular in my arm, dropped the cap on the floor and then prceeded to try and put it back on! he was told where to go.

Its a shame, when people are at their most vulnerable they are subjected to disgusting conditions.

moonrakerz

Below is an extract from the "Telegraph" a while back:-
(My bolding/underlining)

"However - this is very far from the complete picture. I show below the text of an article by Dr. Mark Porter for the Radio Times - disclosing that IN EXCESS OF 65,000 PEOPLE DIE EVERY YEAR in hospitals due to medical error, neglect, food poisoning, infections caught in hospitals - and that was written before the current MRSA and other scandals came to light.

Human nature being what it is of course, the great majority of these deaths in hospitals are not recorded as being due to failings by the hospitals or staff, ie as accidental deaths, but as being due either to the problem which originally resulted in the patient being admitted, or to the problem acquired in hospital.

However, the reality is, that the chance of dying an accidental death lying in a hospital bed is, per hour, somewhere between 200 and 500 times GREATER than being in a car travelling at 70mph on a motorway."

ceridwen

It is very worrying to note the standard of cleanliness - or otherwise - in NHS hospitals. I wonder if anyone has a list of suggestions as to how to deal with having to go into an NHS hospital - ie what the patient can do if they know in advance that they have to go into one (so that they can protect themself) and what their visitors can do if someone has had an unexpected admission into one - in order to protect their relative/friend.

I think it would be really useful if someone could post a list of precautions to take in advance for the patient and what the visitor can do to protect the patient.

We can be sure that the NHS doesnt give a damn about whether we get ill with something else if we have to go into one of their hospitals (okay - lets be fair - some of the nhs staff will care - VERY MUCH - but, as an organisation, the NHS doesnt give a damn). I would be delighted if suggestions go on this thread - as its so worrying to see the standard of "hygiene" in these hospitals.

Lyndsay_21

i remember being pregnant and saying to my mum i was interested in a water birth at the hospital and she told me not to have one as your never sure how clean the hospital is and when i was in labour before i went in the bath my mum went and washed it out properly for me as a precauitionary measure.

georgina_fenwick

My sister went into hospital in december last year for a minor operation on her sinuses and when she pulled back the blankets on the bed she found what she said was a PUBIC HAIR, she refused to get into the bed as you could tell it had not been changed and it still had the indent of the last person to occupy it.

The hospital staff would not change it either, so she just had to lie on the top.



georgina

andyrules

georgina_fenwick wrote: »

My sister went into hospital in december last year for a minor operation on her sinuses and when she pulled back the blankets on the bed she found what she said was a PUBIC HAIR, she refused to get into the bed as you could tell it had not been changed and it still had the indent of the last person to occupy it.

The hospital staff would not change it either, so she just had to lie on the top.



georgina

:eek::eek:

Even the Hotel Inspector says that's one of the worst things a client can find in their bed or bathroom - and that's for a hotel room. In a hospital bed??

Bring back Matron, I say. Not the modern ones stuck behind a desk ticking off targets, but the old 'battleaxe' who would not tolerate a speck of dirt.

No offence to any matrons!!

me_and_me_monkeys

I do feel that cleaning should NEVER have been contracted out and senior nursing staff should be incharge of cleanliness. The hospital I had monkey 1 (1999) in had carpet in the wards the blood stains on that carpet were disgusting, and worse when I visted my friend - a year later in the same bed. - making me feel sick just thinking about it!

dangeroussports

Well this was bound to happen if you follow the American model of health service.

THere is plenty of money around, there are plenty of people to fill the posts and there are plenty of nurses / doctors etc.

Why dont we adopt the following approach ?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2666123.stm

susan1

the one thing you can do whilst a patient in hospital to lessen the risk is to use tea tree oil soap, talc. shampoo toothpaste etc! we do try but visitors are a nightmare. i asked two relatives not to sit on the bed, before i had chance to say i wiil get you chairs, the man told me he payed his taxes and didn't intend to sit on the floor:mad:

myrnahaz

The terrible thing about MRSA is that it's not just a recent problem. My Dad died of MRSA seven years ago - he contracted it while in the neurological intensive care unit of all places. He'd had several brain heamorrhages and had been constantly monitored and well looked after for over 4 weeks - until he caught MRSA, after which he was pushed out of ITU and into a side ward and left to die. We later realised that his death certificate stated Cerebral heamorrhage and DVT as cause of death - no mention of MRSA.