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Ward 13

Story from nhs.uk

"Ward 13"

About: Leighton Hospital

Without doubt the nurses on this ward must be some of the best in the hospital, apart from one, the incident being reported at the time. The trained nurses and HCA's were always attentive and showed care and compassion. Matron and the Ward Manager should be rightly proud of their team.

DOCTORS/INFECTION CONTROL - WORTHY OF A NOVEL - Another story! When will doctors, regardless of their position, learn it is nothing short of being reckless ( or heaven forbid ignorance ) not to wash their hands before commencing a procedure on a patient. Equally as bad, if you have washed your hands or are wearing gloves, you do not pick anything off the floor thus contaminating the aforesaid; why do so many of you not realise you are compromising a patient's health by not adhering to this basic requirement? If recklessness and/or ignorance are not regarded as the reason for this omission in practice, then the only other cause which might be considered is negligence which is a very serious reason indeed! More to the point, doctors' do not like to be challenged about the way they do their job which brings to mind the saying: "You can always tell a doctor but not much!" I do hope someone in authority notices this observation as it not the first time it has been commented on.

Until the day before discharge, my husband's room was not cleaned properly for two weeks by anyone other than myself. No-one knew I was cleaning and I only started doing it myself after watching a domestic wipe down the window sills and skirting board before using the same cloth to wipe the table. The sink was cleaned once by her and the floor spot cleaned twice. Bearing in mind this is a surgical ward and not wanting to upset the domestic was the reason I felt compelled to provide my own bleach having got through two bottles. After reporting this appaling state of affairs to Matron, a cleaner with the credentials of knowing how to clean was despatched. Infection Control should do an 'audit' on door handles - I could not possibly imagine the result! Cleandliness has certainly deteriorated since my husband's last visit as an inpatient and doctors lack of hygeine remains worryingly low!

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Responses

Response from Leighton Hospital 9 years ago
Leighton Hospital

Submitted on 03/11/2015 at 09:17
Published on nhs.uk on 04/11/2015 at 01:32

Thank you for your comments posted on NHS choices. I am sorry to hear that you had some concerns relating to infection control when you were on ward 13, particularly regarding hand hygiene with respect to the Doctors. An observational audit of hand hygiene is carried out each month on the surgical wards.

These are reviewed by the matrons for each area and the necessary actions required from these fed back to the individual wards to be implemented. In response to your post, I have asked that these audits be done weekly for the next few months by a senior member of the nursing team, with a particular focus on the Doctors to iron out any non-compliance. As a Trust, we openly encourage patients and relatives to challenge staff over hand hygiene and also encourage our staff to challenge each other. I can only apologise that this was not evident during your stay. I would like to thank you for your comments regarding the Nursing staff and Health Carers on the ward .It is always appreciated by the staff when they receive positive feedback and I will pass on your comments to the staff on Ward 13. I am sure that the one incident you reported at the time will have been dealt with in an appropriate manner. I hope I have addressed your concerns, but would be more than happy to meet with you should you think it necessary to discuss these issues further. Thank you again ,Nicky Rafferty (Matron Surgery and Cancer Division)

Ward 13 has consistently received its allocated cleaning hours. All of our staff are trained in the correct cleaning of side rooms. Our cleaning methods are in accordance with the techniques in the national Cleaning manual . With regards to cleaning with the same cloth, we use a micro fibre cloth that we clean an area, then fold the micro fibre cloth over to wipe another area. We do not use bleach and follow our Infection Control guidelines cleaning with a chlorine based product specifically designed for use in a hospital environment. However, it is apparent that on this occasion there have been some issues with the timing and consistency of the cleaning of this side room. The Facilities management team will work with the Ward manager to review the cleaning schedules and monitoring of side rooms on this ward. Thank you for raising this with us. Miriam Hickman, Head of Facilities

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