The "third way" strikes again: UK hospitals have Superbug epidemic

[Mairead]

Record numbers of elderly people fell victim last year to a potentially lethal superbug which is plaguing Britain's hospitals, according to details of the first complete survey of the disease. Concerns about the bug, Clostridium difficile, were first revealed in The Independent in June following an outbreak of a lethal strain at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. The figures yesterday showed that there were 44,488 cases of the bug among people over 65.

...

But union leaders blamed the rise on poor cleaning standards in hospitals and said the use of private-sector firms in the NHS had led to cuts in staff numbers.

Karen Jennings, head of health at the public service union Unison, said: "It's not rocket science. The way to wipe out these superbugs is to have cleaner hospitals and if you want cleaner hospitals you must have more cleaners. Cleaners are the front line of defence and yet contracting out has led to a drastic cut in the number of hospital cleaners. It's time to put that right.

Employ more cleaners, give them training and decent equipment and let them get on with the job of keeping our hospital wards, operating theatres and departments spotlessl . We can wipe out these superbugs and shake off the image of England as the superbug capital of Europe."

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article308358.ece


It's beyond me how ANYONE can believe that allowing people to leech private profit from essential services could EVER be a good idea.

[autorank]

1. Another Tony bLiar Special: Recommended

Yes indeed, he is the messanger of death!

[Horse with no Name]

2. It's not only in the UK

Most of the housekeeping in American hospitals is outsourced as well.
Servicemaster does quite a bit of it.
In the old days, envirnonmental cleanliness was recognized as being one of the major factors in keeping bugs down. It makes alot of sense that someone in the hospital with an infection on the first day will be contagious...but perhaps not as contagious on the 2nd, 3rd days, etc.
However, if the rooms aren't being cleaned appropriately, the germs from the first day are there for the spreading.
Now...some hospitals change the sheets every other day or so--unless they are soiled. Basically environmental services will come in and empty the trash.
When a patient checks out...used to be the room was sanitized.
Now--I've seen them ready a room in 10 min. I have even seen where toilets were left unflushed AFTER housekeeping comes in.
Many hospitals have put carpet down. That way, it cuts down on floors having to be kept mopped and waxed.
But if you had ANY IDEA what gets spilled on a regular basis in the floor of a hospital room--you would be appalled.
And you can't sanitize the carpet. At most, it gets wiped up, deodorized, and left for the next patient to share germs from the previous patient.
I've seen 1 housekeeper in house for a 200 bed hospital after 3 in the afternoon.
I could go on and on about the outsourcing of housekeeping in our hospitals and I believe it to be one of the biggest factors in nosocomial infections.

[lapislzi]

3. Your last line says it all

It is only a good idea if you're a rich recipient of said leeched profits.

And we all know who's in charge.

[Taxloss]

4. This is not Blair's fault.

Certainly, he's done little to nothing to address the situation, but MRSA took hold under Major.

[Mairead]

5. If someone who could fix something doesn't, why aren't they responsible?

To me it seems analogous to an arsonist starting a house on fire, after which the fire service stand around and watch while it burns down rather than bestir themselves to put the fire out. Why wouldn't the fire service be responsible for the destruction?

[Mairead]

6. bump

[highplainsdem]

7. This "superbug" is worsened by antibiotics, treated w/probiotics.

Please see this article

http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/ency/antibiotic-associated_colitis.jsp

for some background. This isn't a new or uncommon bug -- it is spread more easily in hospitals and nursing homes, but the reason it causes the diarrhea and colitis that can make it lethal is that C. difficile grows rapidly and becomes more toxic in people who've been given antibiotics. If you know someone in a nursing home or hospital who's being given antibiotics, try to ensure that they're given probiotics at the same time, and after the antibiotics are stopped. If they're already ill from C. difficile, try to ensure that they're given probiotics as well as whatever specific antibiotic or resin has been prescribed for the C. difficile.

Here's another web page with some good information:

http://www.rnweb.com/rnweb/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=114135

I didn't see any mention of probiotics in that article from The Independent, but when I used Google to check for some useful links to post here, I found this article from The Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/26/ucdiffqa.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/08/26/ixportaltop.html

so some UK papers are getting the word out about probiotics helping.