Squalor and scandal in the NHS
A few days after Gordon Brown calls off the 2007 General Election, we hear the the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in Kent has been killing its patients.
The Healthcare Commission says at least 90 patients had died from clostridium difficile, a nasty little germ which flourishes on filth.
C difficile is a hospital-acquired infection which usually causes diarrhoea but can lead to fevers, severe inflammation, and death in around five per cent of cases. Older people are particularly at risk, but people aged 45-64 are also vulnerable – a quarter of all cases occur in under-65s.
The Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells investigators looked into 345 deaths between April 2004 and September 2006 and concluded that C.difficile was definitely or probably the main cause of death for 90 patients.
It contributed to the deaths of another 124 people and may have been a factor in a further 55 cases – a total of 269 people who may have died as a result of a hospital-borne infection which would have been avoided if doctors and nurses were only prepared to wash their hands properly in soap and water. Another 1,100 or so patients were infected with the disease – but they, at least, didn’t die.
The details are grim. It's claimed nurses did not have time to wash their hands properly. They left bed-bound patients, who were suffering from diarrhoea to fend for themselves. People were made to stew in their own juices while wards which, in a different era would have smelled of disinfectant and carbolic, smelled instead of lavatories.
The disgusting images this conjures up are too repulsive to contemplate for long. Squalor is the only word to describe it.
According to the experts, the best way to tackle the infection is simple: wash the rooms and your hands with warm water and detergent. It doesn’t require money nor does it take much time – which is why excuses that the nurses were over-worked and the management were too worried about balancing the books don’t cut much ice. Even consultants failed to take basic hygiene precautions.
In a previous era hospitals may not have had many sophisticated machines to aid their patients but they had bossy matrons and harassed staff who were forced on pain of death to keep their wards spotlessly clean.
Today that is simply not the case and the net result is the rise and rise of hospital-borne infections – the Health Protection Agency says there were 42,625 cases of C.difficile infection in patients aged 65 years and above in England in the first three quarters of 2006 a rise of 5.5 per cent on same period in the previous year.
The numbers are rising at an alarming rate. The number of cases reported to the Health Protection Agency increased from less than 1,000 in the early 1990s to 22,000 in 2002, 28,000 in 2003 and 44,488 in 2004.
Some of this was due to improved diagnostic tests and improved reporting by laboratories, but, as the Department of Health admits, “there has clearly been a very significant increase in the number of cases”.
If ever there were a need to get “back to basics” it’s in the National Health Service. How can we carry on pouring money into an organisation which is so ineffective it neglects the most basic aspects of health care and therefore infects the very people it is trying to make better?
Some people blame the privatisation of hospital cleaning for this scandal. But is there nobody left in the employ of the NHS who can be bothered enforce basic hygiene standards not just on cleaners but on care workers, nurses and even consultants?
One of the tenets of the medical profession is the Hippocratic Oath. The first requirement made of any doctor who swears this oath is: “To practice and prescribe to the best of my ability for the good of my patients, and to try to avoid harming them.”
Scandalously, every day, our hospitals are breaking the Hippocratic Oath.
The Healthcare Commission says at least 90 patients had died from clostridium difficile, a nasty little germ which flourishes on filth.
C difficile is a hospital-acquired infection which usually causes diarrhoea but can lead to fevers, severe inflammation, and death in around five per cent of cases. Older people are particularly at risk, but people aged 45-64 are also vulnerable – a quarter of all cases occur in under-65s.
The Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells investigators looked into 345 deaths between April 2004 and September 2006 and concluded that C.difficile was definitely or probably the main cause of death for 90 patients.
It contributed to the deaths of another 124 people and may have been a factor in a further 55 cases – a total of 269 people who may have died as a result of a hospital-borne infection which would have been avoided if doctors and nurses were only prepared to wash their hands properly in soap and water. Another 1,100 or so patients were infected with the disease – but they, at least, didn’t die.
The details are grim. It's claimed nurses did not have time to wash their hands properly. They left bed-bound patients, who were suffering from diarrhoea to fend for themselves. People were made to stew in their own juices while wards which, in a different era would have smelled of disinfectant and carbolic, smelled instead of lavatories.
The disgusting images this conjures up are too repulsive to contemplate for long. Squalor is the only word to describe it.
According to the experts, the best way to tackle the infection is simple: wash the rooms and your hands with warm water and detergent. It doesn’t require money nor does it take much time – which is why excuses that the nurses were over-worked and the management were too worried about balancing the books don’t cut much ice. Even consultants failed to take basic hygiene precautions.
In a previous era hospitals may not have had many sophisticated machines to aid their patients but they had bossy matrons and harassed staff who were forced on pain of death to keep their wards spotlessly clean.
Today that is simply not the case and the net result is the rise and rise of hospital-borne infections – the Health Protection Agency says there were 42,625 cases of C.difficile infection in patients aged 65 years and above in England in the first three quarters of 2006 a rise of 5.5 per cent on same period in the previous year.
The numbers are rising at an alarming rate. The number of cases reported to the Health Protection Agency increased from less than 1,000 in the early 1990s to 22,000 in 2002, 28,000 in 2003 and 44,488 in 2004.
Some of this was due to improved diagnostic tests and improved reporting by laboratories, but, as the Department of Health admits, “there has clearly been a very significant increase in the number of cases”.
If ever there were a need to get “back to basics” it’s in the National Health Service. How can we carry on pouring money into an organisation which is so ineffective it neglects the most basic aspects of health care and therefore infects the very people it is trying to make better?
Some people blame the privatisation of hospital cleaning for this scandal. But is there nobody left in the employ of the NHS who can be bothered enforce basic hygiene standards not just on cleaners but on care workers, nurses and even consultants?
One of the tenets of the medical profession is the Hippocratic Oath. The first requirement made of any doctor who swears this oath is: “To practice and prescribe to the best of my ability for the good of my patients, and to try to avoid harming them.”
Scandalously, every day, our hospitals are breaking the Hippocratic Oath.
posted by nigel hastilow at 9:33 AM
4 Comments:
Tory Party is a racist party. Instead of sacking a person who the party considerrf made racist rematks and showing willingness to let him stay if he apoligsied shiws what kind of racist party is a Tory party which has always been anti-Asians
Hello there Nigel
I am a young man from the north west and I just wanted to leave you a message of support after your sacking and your recent persecution by sections of the media.
If, as a public figure, you so much as mention anything slightly pro-British today in our once great country you are immediately slapped down by our liberal politicians and our overly leftist media.
It is outrageous that you have been sacked simply for telling the truth!
well dont nigel, you are a brave man, how i agree with you, how riht enoch was, i am not a ractist but i am a realist and this country has gone to the dogs, immigration has to be stopped, british values traditional values have to come first and those who dont like our ways should leave our country. well done nigel i know of many manhy people who support you but wont speak out. i work with immigrants every day of many working life dealing with their problems and it amazes me what mugs we are in this country and how we cow tow down to people from other ethnic groups.
Its not about race full stop ,the island of once Gt.Britain is overflowing with people, If you ask anyone in the street whats getting to them of late and they will tell you excessive immigration ,Its time the government listened to the electorate and their needs instead of following their personal ideals which on their salaries do not affect themselves by what they do ,they just give themselves more money ,would you hire an MP to work for you with his holiday regime they enjoy at our expense ,they have an unconditional view of their worth .
Well done Mr Hastilow you speak for us all.
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