Doctors have a hand in bug infections

London: Doctors are hindering the National Health Service's (NHS) increasingly successful fight against hospital superbugs by not washing their hands often enough, an official report warned on Friday.

The National Audit Office (NAO) says that while good progress is being made in tackling hospital-acquired infections, not all NHS staff practise basic hygiene measures. "Compliance with good infection-control practice is improving, but doctors remain less likely to comply," says the public-spending watchdog in a report assessing the NHS's struggle against bugs such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile.

"Overall, nurses have been quicker to improve their clinical practice in relation to healthcare-associated infection than doctors, for example with higher levels of compliance with basic hand hygiene. In our surveys, doctors and, in particular junior doctors were viewed by trust staff as less likely to comply with infection control policies, including policies on hand hygiene."

However, it said other personnel were to blame, too. "While staff are more aware of good infection control practice, and compliance is improving, compliance is still not universal. Given the delay between failure to comply and infection, some staff still do not see a clear link between their actions and healthcare-associated infection," added the report.

Edward Leigh, MP, who chairs the Commons public accounts committee, said: "We recommended in both 2000 and 2004 that the Department [of Health] promote a scrupulous attention to cleanliness and handwashing and, while there has been some improvement, there are still staff, especially among doctors, whose commitment to good infection control is not exemplary."

Rates of MRSA in hospitals in England have declined by 57 per cent, against a Department of Health target of 50 per cent, while cases of C difficile are down by 41 per cent, ahead of a Whitehall objective of 30 per cent.

Are you surprised by these findings? Should there be random checks to monitor doctors' hygiene practices?

Yes indeed there have to be random checks because we expect from doctors to help us improve our health and not to transfer Bacteria to the patients.
Haitham
Muscat,Oman
Posted: June 13, 2009, 07:28