The HSE are running ads encouraging hospital visitors to wash their hands as part of a drive to reduce the spread of infection, mainly by MRSA.
Now, forgive the pun, but there are a few things bugging me about this campaign:
There is a line slipped in at the end of the radio ad reminding hospital staff to wash their hands too. Is this not a given? Are they not the professionals? Did all those years of study and training teach them nothing about basic hygiene?
Perhaps it is aimed at staff other than doctors and nurses. I hope it is. Last year, when our father was in God’s waiting room there was an MRSA outbreak. We, doctors and nurses included, wore gloves, masks and aprons, and washed our hands thoroughly going in and out of the ward. On one occasion we were there at lunch time. The caterer came in, distributed the trays and left for the next ward. No gloves. No mask. No apron. No hand washing. We freaked and complained to the ward sister that all our precautions were for nothing if this woman could be allowed to ramble throughout the hospital spreading infection. We were told she was an external contractor and they had no authority over her. (He died of MRSA. They put pneumonia on the death cert but that’s for another post on another day).
There are infection threats other than just MRSA in our hospitals: Clostridium difficile is a major one. You can read more about it here, or here if you have more time, but the basics are as follows. It is called C. difficile because it is extremely difficult to treat. The antibiotics which do work are among the most expensive. It is most prevalent where a patient is being treated with antibiotics for other infections. Catch 22. It can kill those who are weakened by age or serious ailments.
Why don’t we hear about it? Because the HSE are legally obliged to collect and publish statistics on MRSA but not C. difficile. For all we know it could be more common than MRSA.
This is yet another example of the lack of joined up thinking we have come to expect in our state services.
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Jesus.
Outside contractor? That is fucking unbelieveable.
Word up your Ladyship! Having said that, she was probably just fobbing us off. To her, we were just the children of the man who was about to be called into the main office from the waiting room and any old excuse would do as we were otherwise engaged. We would (and did, at the time) accept anything.
Worse still, that same day they asked me to agree to a DNR. Later I found that this was neither that hospital’s policy nor legally binding.
In my post I said I’d do a piece on this whole thing some other time. Don’t hold your breath - I try not to blog in anger - I’m still angry.
You’ll probably see a post about my experiences with C. difficile before then - that patient, against the odds, is still alive.