The "third way" strikes again: UK hospitals have Superbug epidemic [View All]

[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.