Posted on 01/26/2005 1:14:39 AM PST by Stoat
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At my recent stay in the hospital they told me I should provide my own antibacterial liquidsoap for handwashing and showering, it cuts back on infections. I complied.
Hillary care making history again....
How does that make hospitals cleaner? Bringing some ghastly half-a-bar from home? That's cleaner?
Good grief, what the hell happened to Britain?
Socialism, and the across-the-board societal decay that always accompanies it.
I was being rhetorical. ;O)
They're going to ban the knife, you know?
How did this make you feel? Did you have a concern that if they weren't able to supply basics such as soap for patients, that perhaps they might not have enough suture for sewing up a surgery, or that they might ask you to go to a cement dealer and ask them to back a mixing truck up to the hospital loading dock because they don't have enough plaster for a cast on a broken limb?
Also, when such things are left up to the patients, standards tend to disappear. One person may regard, as an example, a ancient Chinese herb as an 'antibacterial' when science cannot support such an assertion.
Did this give you greater or lesser confidence in the quality of care that you were receiving?
I remember being struck by the difference in sterile procedures from what we see here in the States.
Some things in particular: the wards all seemed grimy and makeshift (at a "top" children's hospital") though I initially put that down to lighting issues and the like; and in surgery, people walking in and out of the operating rooms directly around in the "sterile field" (which I always thought was SACRED) and even touching or working with the patient whose body was open!
I even saw one surgeon wearing his face mask hitched UNDER his chin instead of covering the nose and mouth (which made me wonder why he bothered and to hope he didn't cough or sneeze into the patient's open wound he was digging around in).
Astonishing! May God Save our British Friends.....
"...should arrange for relatives to wash their nightwear while they are in hospital..."
I thought Big Government wanted young adults to feel free from the 'bondage' of family ties. Interesting development.
In the Flagstaff Medical Center, where a dear friend had the horrible misfortune to be laid up at $1600 per day, no one on the staff would either take him to a shower or give him the werewithall to give himself a sponge bath. After four days he smelled pretty rank. The staff is perenially busy in political involvement such as destroying parking areas for bike paths, making smoking a capital offense and building a huge YMCA at taxpayers expense to provide free daycare for their kids. They have no time, evidently, for the basics of patient care. I, myself, have standing orders that I am to be transported without delay from this den of Sovietski Medicina and taken to a real hospital where they care for the basic needs of the sick. I suggest you do the same should you have the misfortune to find yourself there.
I'd also have pairs of disposible gloves. Don't want to touch most surfaces in a hostpital. Handles on faucets, doors etc.... Auto on/off for facilities would help.
Churches will also be needed to assist with this new system. People who don't have families will need private organizations, particularly churches, to help them out now.
Another problem with this is that family members will be exposed even more to germs in the hospitals, even those 'super bugs' immune to antibiotics. If I am every hospitalized, unless I were at death's door, I'd just as soon have family members call me as enter a hospital with me, regardless of what country I'm in. Further, quality time is reduced, running after toilet paper, soap, laundry, etc. "He died? I was off washing his clothes."
May I ask....is this a VA hospital or a private one? Just curious.... I know that there is variation in care in the US, but what you relate is truly awful and is beneath any standards that I've ever heard of.
And that's really the point....although sometimes there may be horror stories from hospitals in the US as you relate, they are not the norm and they are not representative of the laws and the standards that are in place, whereas this article details the actual laws to be implemented in Great Britain. These will be the standards and the norm, not the exception.
I'm very sorry to hear of your friend's misfortune and sincerely wish him a speedy recovery.
Wouldn't it be just absolutely scandalous, in this age of ubiquitous gloves in U.S. hospitals, to not have access to them in a UK hospital?
From a recent experience with a relative, sheets, blankets, pillow cases, wash clothes and even dishes weren't clean enough to pass muster by anyone's standards.
There are some nasty bugs going around and hospitals must be subcontracting out the housekeeping.
Think about it. There is a nationwide nursing shortage.
What priority then do hospitals give housekeeping?
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