Hospitals must prioritise hygiene
THE LEVEL of hygiene in many hospitals today is nothing short of appalling as reports of the deaths of three premature babies in Belfast in recent weeks have confirmed. Short staffed, underfunded-whatever the problems, in a place where health is concerned cleanliness must be paramount.
It took the deaths of three innocent babies before proper testing began on all the other newborns and that a 'deep clean' occurred.
In my opinion deep cleaning should be ongoing and not carried out after the fact. For these poor families it was too late. The whole building could have rotted and their child would still be gone forever.
Not for the first time have hospitals come under scrutiny for hygiene standards. Those working within the system will argue that they are working as hard as they can but be that as it may it doesn't take a seven year medical degree to ensure that every corner of every room is spick and span.
Why are hospital management teams not doing enough? They need to shout from the rooftops that they need more cash, wherever it comes from to keep these deadly infections out.
Every single year regional hospitals close for at least a week due to the winter vomiting bug.
Older people especially are terrified to go inside the doors for fear they will come out in poorer health than they went in with.
MRSA is still rampant and is skirted around as an unmentionable condition. The question is how do patients contract these diseases they did not have before admission into hospital.
It's simply not good enough. There is no point blaming the recession or the government over dirty facilities.
During the good times they were still as dirty, people still contracted these viruses, except there was much less known about them.
It is bad enough that patients suffer the indignity of lying on trolleys in corridors while on full display in their ill state.
They feel like they are an imposition on the system and often would rather go home in agony than spend another second in hospital.
Years ago people thought it unfortunate if they had to attend hospital for any reason despite the fact that there were enough beds, adequate staff and clean facilities.
Today it is like a playing game of roulette to get a bed and there is the added stress of contracting some virus or other on top of everything else.
Saying that such viruses are a very rare occurrence is not good enough.
One case is one too many and unfortunately a deep clean won't solve the issue for the unfortunate victim.
- DEBORAH COLEMAN
