Hospital hygiene - Tales of lives destroyed

REVELATIONS of the hidden side effects of hospital acquired infections, resistant to certain antibiotics and caused by poor hygiene, will heighten public concerns over this ongoing and unacceptable face of the health service.

With conditions in hospitals throughout the country continuing to cause anxiety for patients, the results of a new survey are extremely disturbing.

They show, for instance, that many survivors of infections such as MRSA can be left with severe long-term consequences including anger, pain, depression and permanent job loss.

Based on interviews with patients and family members, the first study of its kind also reveals that those who lose family members to these dreaded infections can also suffer social and psychological consequences.

Not surprisingly, they cease to trust the hospital system. Their sense of betrayal is compounded when doctors refuse to discuss the issue. This is inevitable when patients acquire deadly infections having been admitted to hospital for routine procedures.

Lives can be shattered in other unforeseen ways. In the aftermath of MRSA, for instance, people can feel stigmatised and unclean. In some cases, it can mean the loss of a sex life for a couple.

MRSA is referred to in hospital circles as “the infection”. It has to be said, however, the HSE policy of naming and shaming hospitals with poor hygiene is to be welcomed.

But this revealing report underlines the need for doctors to be more open with information concerning patients. Families have a right to know.