Squeaky clean Kenny plans to mop up grubby health service

ENDA KENNY is very keen to wash his hands of the incumbent’s handling of the health system.

In fact, so much so that he carries surgical fluid when out canvassing the electorate and pressing people for those crucial votes.

Hopping from ward to ward visiting patients and staff in hospitals, the Fine Gael leader has revealed his fondness for wiping away the blighting bacteria left during Fianna Fáil’s recent tenure of the health system.

With a clean conscience, the Mayo TD is adamant we should all be washing our hands with clinical disinfectant to combat MRSA in the hospitals.

“I carry a bottle of surgical fluid with me in the car, when I go into hospitals and wards, to demonstrate everybody can participatein this,” said Mr Kenny.

In an interview on his plans for the health system, the spotless statesman divulged his strategy for beating the grubby grip of the MRSA infection in wards.

“It’s great to see in some hospitals, not in them all, bottles of surgical fluid outside the wards.”

Speaking to the Irish Medical Times, Mr Kenny referred to days gone by, when matrons were responsible for cleanliness: “You could smell the disinfectant from 100 yards away.

“Cleaners, whether they be contractors or hospital, should be part of the overall team. They are as important as anybody else.”

He reiterated party plans for urgent care centres which would cater for minor procedures.

Criticising Health Minister Mary Harney’s co-location plan for private hospitals on public hospital sites, he stressed it was never included in the Fianna Fáil/ Progressive Democrats’ programme for government. But Mr Kenny conceded, under his rule, the co-location plan will remain if contracts are signed.

“If we are faced with the situation where Labour and Fine Gael are in government in a couple of months’ time and contracts have been signed here, obviously you can’t reverse a signed contract.”

But still, a filthy fight looms on the political front in the coming weeks as Fine Gael dig their heels in and attack the Government’s record on health.

The opposition leader, though, will need more than his surgical fluid to impress upon the great unwashed. Orderly Enda will have to do a little more than wash and go.