UK Health Minister Apologizes For Clostridium That Killed 90, Notes It Was An "Isolated" Incident

[hatrack]

London - Britain's health chief apologised on Monday for an outbreak of a deadly bacterial infection in English hospitals that left 90 people dead, but insisted the incident was an isolated one.

A report into the deaths by England's health watchdog said nurses working for the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells hospital trust in southeastern England did not wash their hands and left patients lying in their own excrement. British Health Secretary Alan Johnson said the report, which included photographs of filthy hospital showers, sinks and toilets, was a "horror story." "On behalf of the government and the (National Health Service), I would like to apologise to all those... affected," he told lawmakers at an emergency session of Parliament.

"But I hope the House will recognise that the awful failures in Maidstone and Tunbridge are entirely unrepresentative of the standards of care that patients and the public rightly expect and is delivered in hospitals across the country, day after day."

The report, made public by England's Healthcare Commission last week, found that "significant failings" at all levels contributed to more than 1 000 patients being infected with Clostridium difficile, a potentially fatal antibiotic-resistant "superbug," across three hospitals run by the trust.

EDIT

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=117&art_id=nw20071015192902622C252443

[Warpy]

1. C. difficile can live on surfaces for several hours

Some surfaces that have been found to spread disease are electronic thermometers, blood pressure cuffs, clothing, dishes, linens, bed frames, and anything else that more than the infected person might touch. In the UK there is a push to get doctors to ditch the tie and lab coat in favor of scrubs while they're in the hospital since the lab coat and especially the dangling tie can come in contact with contaminated surfaces and the contamination be transferred to all the other surfaces s/he comes near.

The good news is that any nurse worth the license can diagnose C. diff. from down the hall. After you smell it the first time, you know, and can institute isolation precautions immediately, long before the lab confirms it.

The bad news is that hospitals have cut housekeeping staff to the bone along with nursing and other personnel. Just when meticulous cleanliness is the most important, fewer people are being expected to do much more and it's just not working. I saw more and more being skipped and that was 4 years ago. I doubt the intervening years of cost cutting have helped matters. I also imagine that the hospital trust in the UK was squeezing pennies out of housekeeping in order to have pounds to spend on things they felt were more glamorous.

While cost cutting to increase profit continues to be the major focus and while it is confined to the staff doing the actual work, this problem will continue to escalate. I can foresee a time when hospitals are once again pest houses where people go to die, not to get better. If we don't get the profiteers out of health care, it will happen.