Bleach and mops back
A hi-tech cleaning system at Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley – hailed as "revolutionary" – has been ditched in favour of mops and buckets of bleach.
Hospital chiefs said today microfibre technology unveiled last year has been abandoned after failing to stem the spread of superbug C-difficile (C-diff).
Bosses hoped cutting-edge equipment would help beat the potentially-fatal superbug and health minister Andy Burnham praised it in Parliament in July after an unannounced hospital visit.
Now 30 trolleys used for the new system are idle.
With the number of superbug cases spiralling, cleaners have been told to go back to the more effective old-fashioned mop and bucket of bleach system.
A hospital worker, who asked not to be named, said: "You'd say it was funny, but the money for this kind of thing is coming from us taxpayers. They spent a lot of money, and it clearly doesn't work very well, so they've had to go back to the old mop, bleach and buckets.
"We shook our heads when we were told how it works, because it's just so fiddly. We've been having more and more cases of this C-diff, so no-one is surprised we've gone back to basics."
He said £800 a month was still paid to use special washing machines to clean the microfibre mops, which contain 220,000 fibres per square inch, each 100 times smaller than a human hair.
Dudley Group of Hospitals chief executive Paul Farenden said bleach cleaning at Russells Hall was part of a plan to manage current problems over C-diff.
He said: "Patients who have Clostridium Difficile have quite often moved around the hospital; therefore bleach cleaning ensures that Clostridium Difficile spores are eliminated, and that the hospital remains clean to the highest standards. A decision is yet to be made as to whether this form of cleaning will remain in the longer term."
