[Margaret Pilkington]

While that is true, it causes panic in folk who are due to be admitted......and that can't be good.

I worked within the NHS for almost 29years......the skin on my hands is wrecked from the handwashing, the use of latex gloves and strong detergents......but I wouldn't have it any other way.

The other thing that works in favour of MRSA is the bigger turnover of patients......this has again been driven by political targets. I know some days on the ward that I worked on we could have as many as 3 different patients in one bed over a 24 hour period....not all at the same time you understand. that is three lots of visitors for each patient too.

Patients also move around the hospital much more......they stand at the hospital doors smoking.....drips and sometimes surgical drains on show for all to see..... they might just as well get on a bus and have a ride around town. They go into the dining room where they sit down in a seat that may just have been vacated by one of the building workers in their working clothes.......and if you try to explain to them that this is not a good practice from the control of infection viewpoint, you get a mouthful of effing and jeffing...... no-one seems to respect the fact that the nurses don't get a big thrill out of telling patients what they should not do when it is for their own good. There need to be some radical changes to how patients AND visitors conduct themselves. I am sure that Lettie will corroborate a lot of what I have said in these posts......she is still on the sharp end!