Three health trusts in the West Midlands and Staffordshire were today named as among the worst in the country for hygiene.
Wolverhampton, Dudley and South Staffordshire Primary Care Trusts are among 57 PCTs, 41 acute hospital trusts, one ambulance trust and four mental health trusts said to be failing to meet standards.
The hygiene code is aimed at tackling hospital infections like MRSA and C.Diff and covers basic issues such as decontaminating surgical equipment, cleaning wards and providing information to patients.
A total of 103 NHS trusts out of 391 in England – approximately one in four – are unable to meet one or more aspects, according to the Healthcare Commission watchdog.
Commission chiefs today issued a public warning over the failures, saying trusts have 10 months to improve before a new regulator comes into force.
The new Care Quality Commission will require trusts to show they are compliant with regulations on hygiene. Those that fall short are likely to face having conditions put on their registration.
Anna Walker, chief executive of the Healthcare Commission, said: “Our main message is not that we expect NHS trusts to be closed, but that there’s 10 months for these trusts to work very hard at bedding these hygiene code duties into place as they take on that extra legal bite of being registration requirements.”
Ms Walker said the Commission had tightened up regulations around decontaminating surgical equipment, which could explain some of the non-compliance.
Simon Evans, head of performance improvement at Wolverhampton PCT, said the trust had “self-declared” areas it needed to improve as part of a 49-point standards check.
“There are improvements that can be made,” he said.
Loading ...
3 Comments
typicle in wolverhampton
The hygiene standards (or rather - the lack of them) in our NHS hospitals are absolutely appalling.
With over 5000 people a year being KILLED by C-diff and MRSA due to the dirtiness and negligence of the very place that is supposed to nurse them back to health, isn’t it time that criminal charges were brought against the managers of those hospitals which are committing manslaughter due to such gross negligence?
People are going into our hospitals with non life-threatening conditions, yet are being killed by C-diff and MRSA simply due to the absence of clean, safe conditions. Is this acceptable? I urge every one of you out there to write to your MP and threaten to decline your vote unless something is done.
If fast-food restaurants such as McDonald’s or Starbuck’s were killing this many people due to a simple lack of cleanliness, do you think we would all just say ‘Oh well, these things happen’?
No matter what it were to cost, they would have to fix the problem.
Do you remember when the Tesco and Morrison supermarkets were damaging people’s car engines with their dodgy petrol? They spent millions putting it right. They didn’t have a choice. Because they knew that we did. But because the Government knows that most of us don’t have any choice as to whether we use the NHS or not, they are doing almost nothing about the problem (of course, they all use private hospitals, where the C-diff and MRSA threats are almost non-existant). Do we really care more about car engines than people in this country nowadays?
Come on, people, kick up a stink; raise a fuss!
Before you have to lower a relative into the ground.
I’m not really surprised. I think that some of my previous remarks on the Wolverhampton Health Care Services have been thoroughly vindicated by these findings. The problem now remains intact; how and when are the Health Care Authority going to do something about the situation. Arrogance still prevails?