"Management need to pull up their socks..."

We take very seriously our standards of hygiene and ensure that there are bottles of gel at the entrances to wards and outpatient departments, freely available for our visitors and patients to use. We do not place bottles at the external entrances and exits and this is for 2 reasons; placing the bottles of gel at the entrances makes them vulnerable to theft from individuals who are addicted to ingesting the chemicals contained within the gel and that is a risk we are not prepared to take. Secondly, people who use gel at the main entrance may then go to the toilet, shop or restaurant on their way to the ward or department, but are unlikely to then use the gel again at the ward entrance, even though their hands may have become contaminated. By placing the gel facility at the entrances to wards and departments we are ensuring that people have the opportunity to make their hands as clean as possible upon entry to that area.

With regard to the new wayfinding system in the hopsital, we are sorry that you found it 'ridiculous' and in fact we have received a lot of very positive comments about it. Any new system will take time to get used to and we hope that the provision of large maps and foldable guides are helping many of our pateints and visitors to find their way round. These mas and guides show the old ward and department names alongsie the new ones. Our old system was out of date and often difficult to navigate for people with sight or learning disabilites or for those where English isnt their primary language. Our new wayfinding divides the hopsital into four Zones, A to D and then each department is given a code number within the Zone which is clearly marked above and to the side of the department or ward entrance. In addition, under the code letter and number the department will also be named, for instance Cardiac Outpatients is department 59 in Zone B so the sign will read 'B59 Cardiac Outpatients.'