|
Hospital infections
there have been one or two references in other threads about people going into Hospital and getting infections (MRSAs) came accross this article in todays NYT and thought it may be of interest to some
NY Times Advertisement :eek: seems the link works ok although it says adverisement |
Re: Hospital infections
Thanks Steeljack, a few simple measures can help to cut infection rates but unfortunately, things aren't so simple on this side of the pond.
The government admits (grudgingly) in their document 'Winning Ways' (this is a strategy to cut health care acquired infections) that UK hospitals do not have enough private rooms. Bed cuts in many hospitals have led to a higher turnover of people, the beds in my unit are not empty for longer than 30 minutes. A quick clean with detergent then someone else is in it. It does not take a genius to figure out that cutting beds when we now have a higher patient turnover must have some effect on infection rates. Disposing of equipment such as blood pressure cuffs may be an option in the USA where, I'm sure that the disposal and replacement of the equipment will be factored into the price of care. Here in the UK where care is free at the point of delivery, this would in all likelyhood, be a costly exercise. People coming to some hospitals for certain operations are swabbed prior to admission. This does not apply to every operation, could you imagine if we swabbed everyone...... hospitals would not meet their targets and ops would be cancelled due to lack of private facilities. To be honest, MRSA is not the greatest concern to most hospitals. We are all auditing things like handwashing on a fortnightly basis but MRSA is controllable. We are much more concerned about C Difficile at the moment, much more virulent, higher fatality rate, high recurrence rate after treatment, easier to spread due to explosive diarrhoea where the spores can spread throughout the room and the spores on hands cannot be killed by hand gels. C Diff is the one to worry about now and the major cause of this is the over prescription of antibiotics. |
Re: Hospital infections
Falkirk Royan Infirmary was listed as one of the dirtiest in Scotland which they are denying. I think that sometimes the hospitals are that busy and short staffed that important procedures are not adhered to to the letter and that is when things go wrong. The govenment can say what it wants but needs to put its money were its mouth is and stop what money trusts have being wasted. As for the overprescribing of antibiotics we sowed the wind and are now reapping the wirlwind. So in short we are all to blame and unless we change our habits it will only get worse.:(
|
Re: Hospital infections
In Oz where my sister works as a nurse......all surgical patients are given a special washing sponge to use in the bath or shower on the days before they come into hospital......they have very low rates of MRSA...but like the US there are far more single rooms...this must have an effect on infection rates.
|
Re: Hospital infections
In 1980 I had -
(Wikepedia definition) "Pseudomembranous colitis is an infection of the colon often, but not always, caused by the bacterium Clostridium difficile. Still, the expression "C. diff colitis" is used almost interchangeably with the more proper term of pseudomembranous colitis. The illness is characterized by offensive-smelling diarrhea, fever, and abdominal pain. It can be severe, causing toxic megacolon, or even fatal" It was caused by an antibiotic named Lincomycin (now banned),prescribed by a doctor in Italy (for a sore throat). I became ill whilst driving through the Brenner pass on the home, and after consulting a doc in Bavaria and a further 2 days resting up in Switzerland, I ended up spending 3 days in a hospital in central France from where I was medically evacuated home. The whole episode was traumatic in the extreme (though it did have it's humourous moments). On repatriation I spent 2 weeks in isolation at Park Lee hospital. The long term effects are still with me to some extent. I had diarrheoa for 20 years! I eventually learned to control it to some extent by eating copious amounts of live yogurt daily. In the past year I have found my cure -- Kefir Kefir - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Antibiotics kill off all the bacteria in the intestines (good and bad bacteria both). We need the good bacteria to maintain a healthy digestive system. Kefir supplies all the good bacteria better than yogurt, and some of Kefir good bacteria attack the bad stuff (yogurt doesnt). When your digestive system is not functioning properly all sorts of nasty side effects happen - failure to absorb essential nutrients, overgrowth of candida, - which can cause damage to many of your vital organs. Therefore I recommend that if you are due to be admitted to hospital where you are likely to be exposed to C-difficile that for several weeks beforehand you load you intestines with as much Kefir as you can drink, so loading up with the good bacteria which will combat it. In USSR hospitals Kefir is in regular use for all inpatients. Kefir can be produced easily and cheaply at home and costs only the price of the milk. The 'grains' grow during use, so I can divide my grain to give to you if you want to start producing it. - just PM me (1st come 1st served) |
Re: Hospital infections
I have resurrected this thread which is 3 months old because the subject is in the news again.
I repeat my offer of Kefir grains to anyone who wants to make their own probiotics very cheaply |
Re: Hospital infections
According to the Telegraph the MRSA bug has resulted in the neo-natal unit being closed since mid September.
|
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
The Kefir is briliant - the only trouble is I need some new friends to give some to! It multiplies like I don't know what. |
Re: Hospital infections
You don't need to be ill to benefit from it
What Really Works 'The insider's guide to natural health' |
Re: Hospital infections
Anybody seen the story in tonights Telegraph? A young mum contracted MRSA from breast feeding her baby. She wasn't told till three weeks later that was what her baby had. This is bad and if MRSA is in the hospitals it shouldn't be hidden from the patients IMO.
|
Re: Hospital infections
We are to blame. Every little sniffle required us to demand pills of the Doctor, who was daft enough to give them. Bugs evolve at such a rate that in a generation we have super bugs that stick 2 fingers up at antibiotics and other counter measures. By the time they stop this lot the next one will be more potent and will kill more. Dosnt matter what a hospital does they will never be rid of em.
Hospitals need to find an efficient way to deal with these problems and not on the cheap to "stay within budget" as per norm. As for the MRSA carry on with the mother and child I wonder if some pansy manager decided not to tell and hope it would not come to light. |
Re: Hospital infections
There is a simple answer to blood pressure cuffs.
Wrap a couple of layers of cling film around the arm first. Cling film is cheap and sterile and now comes in easy use dispensers. But it isn’t only hospitals. Doctors’ surgeries also take patients’ blood pressure, as do Paramedics once they get you in the ambulance. It’s a fat load of use having a sterile, infection free hospital if you pick up a bug in the ambulance whilst being taken there. The stretcher trolley or chair isn’t swabbed down unless it has been soiled in some way by a patient. The same blanket is used again and again during the day unless it got soiled. |
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
The alcohol gels are good and people, especially visitors, are getting better at using them. However, alcohol gels don't kill C Difficile.
|
Re: Hospital infections
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 |
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
A simple guide to Clostridium difficile : Department of Health - Policy and guidance |
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
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. |
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
Has the Neo Natal unit not been closed due to MRSA? |
Re: Hospital infections
If you read about both Cdiff and mrsa you will see that they are transmitted differently - so need different approaches to control and eradication
|
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
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 |
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
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. |
Re: Hospital infections
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.
|
Re: Hospital infections
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! |
Re: Hospital infections
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 |
Re: Hospital infections
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. |
Re: Hospital infections
Sounds like a good idea to me Jambutty but same as you I'm not in the medical proffession.
|
Re: Hospital infections
A hospital ward in Preston has Norovirus
http://www.lep.co.uk/news/Disease-ou...ard.3445601.jp Norovirus Introduction - Health encyclopaedia - NHS Direct This is spread by poor hygiene - again!!!!! |
Re: Hospital infections
The last thing you need to be catching when your system is low.
|
Re: Hospital infections
The Hospital’s denial that anything was amiss is what bothers me. It’s something they obviously would have kept “hush hush” had they been able to control the virus.
|
Re: Hospital infections
At least Lettie knows where she can go and catch it from now, she was after catching it last week.
|
Re: Hospital infections
i agree with that if everyone used the alchohol for their hands when going in and out of the hospital it could help prevent it spreading MRSA.
|
Re: Hospital infections
It's ironic that the doctors and nurses have to be educated in basic procedures of hygiene. I suppose that one excuse is that hospitals, particularly urgent care departments are a little overloaded. It's reassuring to know that Canadian provinces (the delivery of health care is the responsibility of provincial govt., the feds just kick in some money), and that most of them are responding to voter concerns and putting billions more into health care. (For those who are interested, Alberta would like to have about 400, 000 workers in the "skilled" areas ... this includes thousands of jobs in the health care sector ... money is great, and the Rockies are in your backyard.) I do think that we need more research into why certain strains of "bug" are becoming more resistant to drugs. I think it has a lot to do with what we eat. But that is my hobby horse ... so I won't inflict it on anyone else.
|
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
The bathroom would need a complete clean after every toilet use 24/7. The NHS wards don't have cleaners 24/7, one cleaner can be cleaning 3 different wards and obviously can't be everywhere at once. There's nothing that can be done about the bugs in the atmosphere unfortunately. If you have norovirus you often don't realise it at first and blame the sudden diarrhoea on something you ate. it is only after a few toilet trips that patients will tell the staff that there's something wrong, by which time, it's too late as it will have already spread. I see that the government are after employing 2,500 more hospital matrons in order to help control infections. This will clearly not work..... It would be more appropriate to employ 5,000 cleaners/support staff. Matrons will be constantly at meetings discussing targets, they don't do any cleaning...:rolleyes: |
Re: Hospital infections
There is now yet another bug causing hospital problems
BBC NEWS | Health look on the right side of this health page for an audio report on- Pseudomonas - hospital acquired pneumonia |
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
Ambulances in the North West are not cleaned as a matter of routine. Crews are not alotted time and no cleaners are employed to do it.
BBC NEWS | Health | MRSA 'risk' from dirty ambulances extract-- Ambulance crews questioned by the union said targets, time and money were all to blame for different cleaning practices between trusts. In the worst example, ambulance crews in the North West have no dedicated cleaning staff or cleaning time. |
Re: Hospital infections
1 Attachment(s)
The death rate from C difficile is up - partly due to it being put on the death certificates as an underlying cause of death, whereas before, docs sometimes omitted it.
The true size of the problem is now coming to light. Todays BBC News- BBC NEWS | Health | Dramatic rise in C. diff deaths |
Re: Hospital infections
Don't know about any body else but not being in great health myself, this problem sure scares the hell out of me, it will have to be something very very serious before i'll let them admit me into hospital. 2 years ago a mate, who I actually met when I was an inpatient at QP about 17 years ago was admited with a very bad chest complaint, he got MRSA nd that was the end for him, now you realise why i'm so scared
|
Re: Hospital infections
Red tape preventing Conquest from cutting hospital bugs - Hastings Today - Back to Home Page extract-
A recent study in the medical publication The Lancet showed 40 per cent of C diff infections are spread by hospital bed linen and gowns worn by patients. Scientists have proved that standard laundry systems do not kill C diff and that it can be returned to hospital beds on apparently bug free sheets and blankets. There is a laundry system which kills C Diff - it is called Otex, and kills the bug with ozone But guidelines from the Department of Health, which are based on a piece of legislation from 1969, means the laundry system, called Otex, can only be used on mops and not sheets or other bed linen. OTEX - Validated Ozone Disinfection Beaurocracy dictates that higher temperatures than those acheived by the Otex system must be used on hospital linen----- so they can only kill C Diff on mops :rolleyes: |
Re: Hospital infections
dont let it bother me, cos i'm never out of the damn places, was in on tuesday n twice last year, so i take the view if theres owt wrong with me-get it sorted, MRSA n such aint a factor- its when the boss pulls yer clockcard.;)
|
Re: Hospital infections
This is something that has been going on for years.
My mum died 10 years ago after a routine operation. She got an infection and died a week later,at the same time another woman on the same ward had a similar operation and also died from an infection. I'm personally scared that i will be ill enough someday that i need hospital treatment,You never know what state you will come back in if at all. |
Re: Hospital infections
this is scaring me even more than i was already!
|
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
My dad has had numerous operations over the years and has never had a problem,maybe i am contradicting myself but it does seem to be on the rise and i am personally scared of being hospitalised. Sorry if i don't make much sense had a few to many vodkas! |
Re: Hospital infections
C- difficile features on Panorama tonight (Sunday)
BBC NEWS | Health | UK c.diff deaths 'rising sharply' Alcohol wipes are useless against it. I had it in 1980. You can help your body defences against it by drinking probiotics. See my earlier posts in this thread. I have kefir grains to give away to anyone that wants some. |
Re: Hospital infections
without sounding like a broken record,...... I've said it before and will say it again , Hospitals will never be clean until the "old" battle axe matrons and Irish and West Indian ward sisters are brought back with enough power to motivate the the patients and the lazy ass cleaners, sod their 'human rights" about how "you can't speak to me like that" and "I have a union" if the lazy sods don't want to work and keep the places clean then fire them and hire eastern Europeans.
Also while your at it, probably half the Hospital administrators with "ology" degrees should go as well ....seems to me medicine has be taken out of the hands of the medical professionals and handed over to a bunch of P C dollopers |
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
Hospital management should be firmly in the hands of someone with half a lifetime of experience in working in a hospital. Someone who started off as a trainee nurse and worked herself up through the nursing hierarchy to Matron.
By the time that someone got to be a Matron they knew it all. Patients and some skiving nurses could kid other nurses and even doctors but no one fooled a Matron. Some hooray Henry with a university degree in management or accountancy hasn’t got a clue how to run a hospital. |
Re: Hospital infections
A member of this forum lost both parent to mrsa within a year of each other, and was a fair number of years ago, both had gone to hospital for routine stuff, neother came home, it is far more common than many people think, to give an idea how long ago this was, compensation in those days would have been difficult to claim, not like the recent years of compensation nation culture we have developed.
|
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
So much to say, I would take careful thought about having an operation that I didn't 100% need. |
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
Hospital management needs to be taken away from accademics/politicians and put firmly back into the hands of those with good old fashioned common sense. Ons suspects the eastern european cleaner might make a good Ward Manager. also I believe large super hospitals help to spread diseases and are grossly inconvenient for the public, bring back the cottage hospital. |
Re: Hospital infections
JB with regards to the use of cling film I will say that it could affect the reading if placed tightly over the arm but given that I work in the Pre-Hospital sector trying to roll out cling film when you need a BP pdq (pretty damn quick) to see if you can give drugs to help the pt to breathe or their heart to be eased then you don't try to cover it you just have to get the reading. Once in the A&E maybe it could be done that way but in a wrecked car where you need to know if the BP is enough to keep them alive..............
If badly contanimated I will (and have) thrown equipment away and had to go and beg, borrow or steal (from other stations stores not vehicles) until I get a replacement but as stores work Mon-Thus 09:00-17:00 Fri 09:00-16:00 and this happens at the weekend, on nights or over a bank holiday................... |
Re: Hospital infections
Today Monday I am watching the C-diff programme in full on the BBC website
BBC News Player - Panorama |
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
So..... it again has not been screened, but can be viewed online here-
BBC News Player - How Safe is Your Hospital? |
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
I watched Casualty 1908 on the BBC, which was based on the real people who either worked or were patients at the London Hospital, and the actual events that took place at the Edwardian East End, and I'm sure that under Matron's beady eye cleanliness was much more important an issue then it is now.
The weirdest thing was remebering that it was only forty years before the National Health Service was founded, and that then if you couldn't afford to pay for medicine or care, there was a high probability that you'd probably snuff it. |
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
Is it not possible that we could all help in our own way to slow down or even alleviate these infections? As a visitor is it to much to ask that you take every precaution to try and prevent the spread of any infections by doing your own bit? We as a family have bought our own antibacterial hand gel and use the gel provided by the hospital as a back up. Surely if we can help to prevent infections it is all for the better and at less than two quid a bottle it must be worth it for your nearest and dearest!!!!
|
Re: Hospital infections
Sorry forgot to name the gel, it is Carex Antibacterial Hand Gel.
|
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
Clostridium difficile - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
http://www.lancashireeveningtelegrap..._superbugs.php |
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
My Grandma's sister went into hospital for a small operation and caught a serious infection, cant remember its name but the last I heard she was in isolation.
|
Re: Hospital infections
Patients being transferred from Royal Blackburn to the GP ward at Accy Vic are now tested for MRSA, is that common practice in all transfers these days?
|
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
Yes, it's common practise in all transfers. Swabs are taken from nose and groin and sent for culture.
|
Re: Hospital infections
I actually think that people entering hospital these days are tested as well, they seem to think that lots of people care MRSA bug outside hospital
|
Re: Hospital infections
i went into hospital a month ago , and one week after my op i was back in with a bad infection , spent a day anti drip then tablets , finshed them nearly two weeks ago , still don,t feel right , the funny thing is they haven,t told me what kind of infection i had , they took swobs ,
|
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
Re: Hospital infections
Quote:
|
| All times are GMT. The time now is 01:36. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.6.1
© 2003-2013 AccringtonWeb.com