Hospital hygiene: The €35m clean-up bill

AT least €35 million was spent on cleaning Irish hospitals last year, yet this country has the highest rate in Europe of the potentially fatal MRSA bug.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has admitted that Irish hospitals are using different hygiene guidelines but said that they intend to remedy this inconsistency after their two month hygiene audit is completed next month.

Each former health board yesterday said that they fully train staff on hygiene requirements whether they are in-house staff or contract cleaners. All of the former health board areas reported growing cleaning bills over recent years.