Hospital and cleanliness - or the lack thereof

[Nori Brick]

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

Yes those toilets were pretty disgusting.

tolites me an willow are on about they are located on the secound floor down on the way to the cafa just next to the service lift. Another thing I noticed is that they keep the tolites on in the main entrence and in the cafa clean. So my Question is this why can't they keep all the tolites clean?

[Nori Brick]

Originally Posted by Neil

Maybe someone can explain why Nursing staff are allowed to go to work and go home in their uniforms? The hospital likes to say most infections are brought into the hospital by visitors. What about staff wearing their uniforms to/from work (this includes Doctors)?

Good question, the answer to that is that they don't see it that way. the way they see is that the infections are brought in by the visiters not the staf.

[Benipete]

Originally Posted by Neil

Maybe someone can explain why Nursing staff are allowed to go to work and go home in their uniforms? The hospital likes to say most infections are brought into the hospital by visitors. What about staff wearing their uniforms to/from work (this includes Doctors)?

With you on this one Neil.It's not allowed in the catering trade.

[WillowTheWhisp]

I to agree with that.

[BERNADETTE]

If the toilets are dirty did you report it to the appropriate person?? Are there not notices telling you who to report to???

[lettie]

Have any of you actually complained about the visitor's toilets on level 2, and if so, who did you complain to and what was done about it?

Those toilets are cleaned nightly, I think, when there are no visitors around. Visitors often use those toilets to smoke, grafitti and other such misdemeanors as there is no security in that area during the day and staff never use them. Thankfully, patients are not nursed in the visitors toilets (although with current NHS bed pressures, it wouldn't surprise me), so on the cleaning priority list, the visitor's loo isn't exactly a priority.

Let me ask you....... How would your bathroom at home look if a few hundred people visited it on a daily basis and how often would you clean it? Rather than complain on an open forum, why don't you write to the powers that be up at the hospital and express your concerns, or even apply for a job on the domestic services and see if you can keep up with the cleaning any better than the current staff.

It seems to me that people are more than willing to have a go at the public services but are unwilling to acknowledge the good work that is done by them.

As for nurses uniforms, the new policy should put paid to people travelling in their uniforms. Bear in mind that the vast majority of people seen in town, in uniform, are actually nursing home staff or community staff. Nurses, however, have been travelling in uniform for donkey's years. I remember my Gaberdine and the dark blue travelling cloaks which we wore over the uniform. In those days MRSA wasn't the problem that it is now, even though everybody travelled in uniform. When all staff have their new uniforms, there will hopefully be less people travelling around in them.

It must be borne in mind that the NHS has far less beds than it did when it first began in the 40's but treats 3 times more patients than it did back then. I think that this is a massive issue, the beds don't even go cold these days before the next patient is on them. They are cleaned quickly with detergent and made up again. Gone are the days when beds were left to air a bit before re-making. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that more patients + less beds = more chance of infection.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Well said Lettie. I would give you some Karma, but I have to spread it around

With regards to bed occupancy being a factor in MRSA...a recent study found this to be a very relevant factor......everyone demonises the nursing staff without any real idea of what the staff actually do during a shift....we should measure them by what they did, not what they didn't manage to do.

[Neil]

I would expect the toilets to be checked and cleaned many times a day. After all the people using these toilets then go onto the ward and visit the sick people.

I know many people in uniforms are not hospital staff but I personally know people who are that do it.

[Margaret Pilkington]

It always used to be as Lettie stated. if you left the hospital in uniform you had to wear a full length coat or cape to cover the uniform....I'm not quite sure when this fell out of practice.
As far as the cleanliness of the public toilets goes, no-one has said if there was any report made to someone who could have dealt with the problem......people complain on here but are reluctant to do something concrete to solve the problem.
Everyone expects someone else to have done it for them.

[lettie]

Originally Posted by Neil

I would expect the toilets to be checked and cleaned many times a day. After all the people using these toilets then go onto the ward and visit the sick people.

Lol...... Many of the visitors turn up in work gear, when challenged by staff they tell staff to 'f' off. People turn up to visit with coughs and colds and we even had a woman bring a child to the antenatal clinic with her when the child had German Measles.

We have to face facts that not everyone has common sense...

[WillowTheWhisp]

Hang on a minute who is blaming the nursing staff?

How does the fact that there is a rapid turnover of patients mean that the floor can't be mopped properly by the cleaners? If there aren't enough cleaners then there need to be more cleaners. This is NOT a criticism of the nursing staff but it's people jumping down the throats of people who complain that puts people off complaining.

I'd have thought nurses would also have wanted to work in clean conditions.

Public toilets have cleaners in situ who are in and out of there all day making sure they are clean. Supermarkets have notices saying theirs are checked regularly but if you find they are not clean please advise customer services - but we should expect LESS from an NHS hospital?

No wonder standards are slipping.

[Lilly]

Originally Posted by Neil

Maybe someone can explain why Nursing staff are allowed to go to work and go home in their uniforms? The hospital likes to say most infections are brought into the hospital by visitors. What about staff wearing their uniforms to/from work (this includes Doctors)?

Good question, Neil.

I believe that nurses uniforms used to be washed at the hospital to kill all germs. They were washed at a very high temperature I am told.

Domestic washing machines do not get hot enough to kill all the bugs.

I think that this should still be the case and that hospital staff should not come to work / go home in their uniforms.

That would be something they could do to cut the spreading of germs.

The rest is out of their hands.

As for the cleaners, well, as has already been said, there is a desperate shortage and the existing cleaners are faced with more work than they can cope with.

If no-one says anything about it then nothing will be done.

Complaints need to come in and be quantified before anything can be done.

[mez]

my daughter (nette) works in the laundry at the royal blackburn, she does not go home in her uniform & has a clean one every day to change into, its the rules of the laundry, i was speaking to a lady to-night at our nette's that is taking over a dept & cleaning comes within her domain so told her " get on accyweb" there are some very upset & disgrunteled people on there they are upset about the cleaning in the wards ie: non existent she said she would have a peep & thats one area she really would look into .

[WillowTheWhisp]

So the laundry staff, who don't have direct contact with the patients, don't go home in their uniforms but the nursing staff, who are directly responsible for caring for the patients, do? That seems a bit topsy turvey.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

So the laundry staff, who don't have direct contact with the patients, don't go home in their uniforms but the nursing staff, who are directly responsible for caring for the patients, do? That seems a bit topsy turvey.

Thats down to poor management. Who is managing the staff who wear their uniforms to/from work? And why are they allowing it?