Campaign aims to inform people about hospital-acquired infections

IN response to the story (August 20) regarding the sad death of Brian Daly (from an MSRA infection), I wish first of all to commiserate with his family on their loss.

At times like this, it has become the convention to call on the Taoiseach, the health minister and the HSE chief executive to put in place the standards they know full well are needed to prevent such deaths and the untold devastation caused by these infections.

I am not doing that. I have given up on the State and those who are supposed to make it function for the citizens. The expertise to control hospital-acquired infections has existed in this country for a long time. The will to employ it is evidently lacking.

Consequently, I am calling on ordinary citizens to take as much control as they can here. In the long run, our healthcare system belongs to us. We are paying for it, sometimes on the double.

So I am asking all citizens to inform themselves about hospital-acquired infections, how they are caused and how to prevent them. and what to do if they happen.

Armed with this knowledge, it is possible that, eventually, Irish people will not become helpless when they enter a hospital, but will expect and demand conditions of care no less than they now look for in hotels, restaurants, hairdressers and any other location where services are supplied to the public.

I am not looking for perfection, but for the standards which are demonstrably achievable elsewhere. The Stop Infections Now Campaign is being launched to supply the necessary information to the public and hopefully, in the months ahead, will be making sure that it is available in every corner of the country.

Dr Teresa Graham

Stop Infections Now Campaign

1 Meadowbrook

Tramore

Co Waterford