From: Ian blenkharn@ianblenkharn.com
Category: News & information
Date: 25 Aug 2008
Time: 10:36:54 +0200
Remote Name: 86.146.8.18
Nobody can have missed the ongoing concerns and widespread criticism of hospitals, in the UK and elsewhere, of extensive hygiene failures and high infection rates. Several press reports now show a slight shift in emphasis, suggesting The Healthcare Commission and public pressure groups (PEAT), though perhaps predictably neither HSE or EA, are critical of waste management standards also:
Kent Online reports several Trusts in that country failing in their obligations to provide a safe and clean environment. In particular,
"East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust complied with all standards except having systems in place to ensure waste disposal is properly managed to minimise health risk." and,
"Medway NHS Trust met all standards except for ensuring reusable medical equipment was properly decontaminated and waste disposal was properly managed."
Over the water, the Belfast Telegraph has obtained under the Freedom of Information Act information about Craigavon Area Hospital showing that:
"Among the most fundamental areas highlighted for improvement at Craigavon Area Hospital were the safe disposal of used needles and clinical waste, improved cleaning of medical and general equipment, as well as basic health and safety standards."
"Also in A&E, two sharps bins, one of which was in the children's emergency unit, were found to have material protruding, while another contained hazardous waste."
[more]
And this week, The Healthcare Commission has announced that it will be conducting far more cross-checking of self-reported compliance scores for the annual performance assessment of English NHS trusts. Quite right too, as despite all of the adverse publicity, complaints and condemnation, and the many outbreaks of infection, most NHS Trusts still record full compliance in the core standards of hygiene. Sadly, the facts tell a vastly different tale and yet more checks are necessary to make sure that standards are being met and self-reported compliance scores are honest, accurate and reliable.
There is often a wide discrepancy between self-reported compliance scores and measured compliance. (Blenkharn JI. Hygiene and waste management in UK hospitals: are self-reported compliance scores always valid? Journal of Public Health (Oxford) 2007; 29(4): 472-3). (Due to copyright restrictions, this paper is not available for direct download, but you can request a reprint).
Perhaps this publication has succeeded in prompting further cross-checking by The Healthcare Commission, thereby raising standards of performance in this important area. I certainly hope so.