It's germ warfare!
CLEAN HANDS - that was the message at the Causeway Hospital last week.
The latest stage in the Northern Trust’s “cleanyourhands” campaign came to the Coleraine site on Thursday, to emphasise the need for people visiting hospitals to clean their hands. The scheme aims to stem the spread of infectious diseases, such as C Diff and MRSA.
Our reporter Milne Rowntree was put to the test. He had his hands covered in a special solution before being told to wash them thoroughly. Despite three good scrubs with soap and hot water, a test under ultraviolet light quickly proved that there was a lot of room for improvement. A lot of the solution was still there and easily showed up in the ultra violet light box
Thankfully staff were on hand to demonstrate to all visitors, effective ways to wash your hands and to explain the importance of hand washing to good infection control practice in hospitals.
The campaign has already been directed towards hospital staff - doctors, nurses, cleaning staff and other people who work with patients. Now the message is being directed towards visitors to the hospital and to patients in wards.
Medical Director with the Northern Trust, Dr Peter Flanagan, said: “The events taking place at all Trust hospitals emphasise what is a very serious message.
“People need to know that proper hand-washing has a vital role to play in controlling the spread of infection in hospitals. This is a message we continue to reinforce with all our staff.”
Ciaran O’Gorman is a locum consultant microbiologist at the Causeway. It is his job to lead the fight against infections in the hospital.
He told the Times: “It is my job to give advice on the treatment of serious infections in the hospital and infection protection in hospital.
“That includes clinical advice to doctors as well as more practical issues such as hand cleanliness and overall environmental cleanliness.
“One of our problems is that C. difficile in particular can survive for a long time outside the body, as spores, and can be difficult to clean away effectively.
“It is enormously challenging for our cleaning staff but thankfully all our staff are highly trained and dedicated to providing the best service possible.”
Handwashing is only one of a number of approaches the Trust is putting in place to ensure that it is doing everything possible to control the spread of infection in its hospitals. They have recently launched a visitors policy and reviewed visiting times at all its hospitals. The guidelines are available at all hospitals.
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Weather for Coleraine
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: East
