Wash your hands or lose your parking spot, doctors warned
In a sign that the threat of healthcare-acquired infections such as MRSA and C difficile has not gone away, health service management at Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown have warned new appointments they must adhere to the protocol.
The warning came after senior microbiologists at the facility raised concerns over attendance by junior doctors at hygiene training sessions.
Speaking during the hospital board’s May 4 meeting, the minutes of which are the latest publicly available, management said the lack of attendance could also cause problems during Health Information and Quality Authority hygiene spot-checks.
Hospital manager and committee chairperson, Mary Walshe, said that “a proposal to issue new staff with temporary car-parking permits for one month only needed to be agreed”, with “car-parking charges applying thereafter until hand hygiene education sessions have been completed”.
The minutes of the meeting were obtained under the Freedom of Information act by trade publication The Medical Independent.
The strict hygiene training plan was made public just over a fortnight after a survey of more than 5,000 hospital patients found they have serious issues with staff hand hygiene.
The survey found that just half of patients believe staff washed their hands before examining them.
In addition, 96% of patients said they had not asked hospital staff to wash their hands.
