Hospital infections - Page 2

lettie · 13-10-2007, 16:16

The alcohol gels are good and people, especially visitors, are getting better at using them. However, alcohol gels don't kill C Difficile.

MargaretR · 13-10-2007, 16:23

A gov website (quote)
"Its usual habitat is the large intestine, where there is very little oxygen. It can be found in low numbers in a small proportion (less than 5%) of the healthy adult population. It is kept in check by the normal, 'good' bacterial population of the intestine."

That is why it will help to drink lots of probiotic Kefir, especially if the docs are killing off your good and bad bacteria with antibiotics - Kefir supplies good ones

BERNADETTE · 13-10-2007, 16:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by lettie

The alcohol gels are good and people, especially visitors, are getting better at using them. However, alcohol gels don't kill C Difficile.

I know they don't eradicate the infection but every little precaution to stop the spread must be a bonus. It would be nice to see everybody using the gel.

MargaretR · 13-10-2007, 16:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by BERNADETTE

I know they don't eradicate the infection but every little precaution to stop the spread must be a bonus. It would be nice to see everybody using the gel.

The spores are airborne - handwashing wont stop that
A simple guide to Clostridium difficile : Department of Health - Policy and guidance

jambutty · 13-10-2007, 17:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ber999T

JB I can say that the sheets and blankets are now used once and changed after each patient as we have to do this to maintain infection control that have been put in place to help combat the spread of MRSA. You can't use cling film as it will give a false reading because it will be putting pressure over the artery your using.

It is comforting to learn that sheets and blankets are changed after being used once Ber999T.

I wasn’t thinking of wrapping the cling film tightly around the arm, just loose to act as a barrier.

But I just cannot see how a layer of plastic about one thousandth of an inch thick, if not thinner, between the cuff and the skin could give a false reading. Do you get a false reading if the cuff is put in place over a shirtsleeve? If so how much of a false reading?

Does it make any practical difference if the reading is 130 over 80 or 132 over 82 because the cuff is not next to the skin?

Does it make any difference if the arm is thick and muscular or thin and scrawny?

If not then a thin film of plastic shouldn’t make any difference either.

Lilly · 13-10-2007, 20:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by lettie

Lol.... Don't believe everything you read in the telegraph, it has headlines to sell papers and not necessarily tell the truth.

Are you saying that it's not true then?

Has the Neo Natal unit not been closed due to MRSA?

MargaretR · 16-10-2007, 09:27

If you read about both Cdiff and mrsa you will see that they are transmitted differently - so need different approaches to control and eradication

BERNADETTE · 16-10-2007, 09:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by lettie

Lol.... Don't believe everything you read in the telegraph, it has headlines to sell papers and not necessarily tell the truth.

Seems they were telling the truth this time, it is now national news.

MargaretR · 16-10-2007, 09:33

A simple guide to MRSA : Department of Health - Policy and guidance

A simple guide to Clostridium difficile : Department of Health - Policy and guidance

They need different approaches to control them

lettie · 16-10-2007, 16:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by BERNADETTE

Seems they were telling the truth this time, it is now national news.

The truth I was referring to was that parents hadn't been told...... According to my sources, they had.

MRSA is present in all walks of life, people carry it quite happily without it ever causing a problem for them. It may interest you to know that for every 100 Accyweb members at least 25 of us will carry MRSA somewhere on our bodies which will not cause us any problems unless we have an operation or serious illness, this is known as colonisation. Bacteria are very clever and can mutate to become resistant to modern treatments, eg antibiotics but there is a massive difference between being colonised and being infected.

BERNADETTE · 16-10-2007, 17:11

Okay the patients had been told, the young girl who gave the interview to the Telegraph must have been lying. My concern really is was the ward next to the Neo-Natal Unit closed? I can't imagine anybody who came in to the hospital to have a baby would want to be so close to where the infection had broken out.

bullseyebarb · 16-10-2007, 17:37

Good hygiene isn't rocket science. Florence Nightingale laid out the principles 150 years ago in "Notes on Nursing." But nowadays it seems to be all about the money......or lack thereof.

I just read a U.K. Guardian article regarding NHS dental care. It seems that large numbers of you are going without dental treatment and, in about 6% of cases, people were resorting to self-treatment. Extracting their own teeth, (using pliers), filling teeth with clove oil and Polyfilla and fixing crowns with Superglue. Someone else reported scraping off plaque with a screwdriver. Good grief!

MargaretR · 29-10-2007, 05:48

Who'd ave thowt it !
French mucky clay may replace penicillin in the fight against MRSA
French muck: Is this the new penicillin? - Independent Online Edition > Health

jambutty · 29-10-2007, 20:00

In an earlier post I dared to suggest that a loose layer of cling film around the arm would solve the problem of possible cross infection from a blood pressure cuff. This suggestion was met with ridicule because it was claimed it would affect the reading.

A few days ago I was attending my doctor to get the pneumonia jab and whilst he was on the oche with the needle poised in his hand I asked him if a couple of layers of cling film or even a shirt sleeve would affect the reading.

His reply! “No it shouldn’t!” So he took my blood pressure over a bare arm and then over an arm with my shirt sleeve rolled down. There was no appreciable difference in the reading.

This would indicate that cling film or even a disposable long plastic bag, because you put your arm through the cuff loop and it could and probably would touch the arm somewhere along the way before being in place, would be a way of not spreading nasty things from one patient to another by means of the blood pressure cuff.

But hey! What do I know? I’m not in the medical profession so any idea coming from the outside will be met with derision and ridicule.

BERNADETTE · 29-10-2007, 20:05

Sounds like a good idea to me Jambutty but same as you I'm not in the medical proffession.