Quote:
Originally Posted by Sephiroth
My former brother-in-law has just died in hospital from CV -contracted there. He was taken in for a gall bladder operation and duly contracted CV.
That's terrible. In my day (when Emergency Ward 10 was on TV), every hospital had a ruthless matron. My current mother-in-law (dcd,) has confirmed that the reason that typhus etc didn't run rife in hospitals back then was a rigorous cleaning regime including the use of carbolic to clean bedframes and so on. Clearly CV is rife on hospital services and the pontifications of the NHS Chief Executive are worthless unless he gets the hospital sanitation regime under control.
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I would like to echo the sympathies to you and your family.
In general, there has been some remarkable success in reducing hospital acquired (nosocomial) infections.
This study show some amazing reduction in cases of the usual suspects for hospital infections such as MRSA and digestive diseases. A lot of this is down to effective cleaning. Incorrect use of anti microbial cleaners can be worse than none as it will tend to select for the real nasties. The evidence of surface transmission for SARS-COV2 seems to be weak. However, it is very difficult to socially distance while being treated in hospitals which is why the staff wear so much PPE everywhere.
Hospital infection control will always be a risk/benefit equation. If you want to prevent hospital acquired infections, the best way is to not have any patients. This was of course the approach used, cancelling elective and non-urgent procedures. However, this of course is not sustainable in the long term and there will be non-COVID cases that cannot wait (I enjoyed this with my daughter where we spent a week in hospital together while she was being treated)
Strict separation of COVID and non-COVID areas is the first line of defence if the layout of the hospital allows this. However, the upshot of this is staffing. ICU care is incredibly staff intensive and this takes staff away from other areas.
By the way, if you want to donate to the staff of your local hospital, the most welcome gift right now is good quality hand cream. The amount of hand washing and sanitising going on right now is insane and it wrecks the skin. We sent a whole bunch of Vaseline Intensive Care cream to the team who looked after our daughter and it was very well received!