Superbugs revisted
I’m going to get on my high horse again about hospital cleanliness and the rise of the superbug.
In England one big public hospital had various outbreaks of C. difficile and lost 90 patients to the bug in 2 years. A tragic and devastating statistic.
There is only one reason that the superbug has been allowed to proliferate and that is a total lack of PRIDE!
As an ex nurse in the 1980s we all took pride in the state of our wards and hospital. Each hospital was run like one big family unit, each employee knowing their place within the ‘family’. We worked as a team with the cleaning staff, who were managed by the ward sister. We were constantly appraised over our aseptic and wound management techniques and the consequences of not cleaning beds, lockers and surrounding areas between patients .. well it was a fate worse than death! Bodily fluids were mopped up immediately by the nearest person irrespective of grade of nurse or cleaner and the area thoroughly disinfected.
Now, in the name of cost cutting, the hospitals have been outsourced to locum doctors, agency nurses and contract cleaners who, in the main and perhaps understandably do not buy into the pride ethic.
Meanwhile Mr MRSA and Ms C Difficile are having a ball mutating wildly amongst the filth and dirt!
I’ve visited Singapore quite a few times this year and we should take a leaf out of their book… pristine hospitals, clean pavements and at Changi airport, well you can eat your dinner off the floor, it is that clean!
If Singapore can do it by imposing strict penalties on its citizens for not taking pride in keeping their country clean and tidy, then so can we!
Bring back Pride!
Elaine Warburton BSc RN ACA
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POSTED IN: General Genetics and Health, Genetics of Disease
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2 opinions for Superbugs revisted
Alicia Sparks, NAMI Affiliation Leader
Oct 28, 2007 at 7:40 pm
The MRSA outbreak has hit my area hard. People who have it go to the hospitals, get lanced and drained and given some antibiotics (or just given some antibiotics), and sent home. They return in just a few weeks with whatever body part was affected completely swollen and ready to pop - or so it looks. A close friend of mine went back to the doctor after following that “process,” was told it was MRSA and that he was at risk for compartment syndrome, and had to have surgery. It’s a mess here.
Virulent strain of MRSA now in the community
Nov 13, 2007 at 9:58 pm
[…] Further to my articles on hospital MRSA .. […]
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