Leader: Unacceptable hospital standards

Published on Thursday 24 June 2010 14:24

THE revelations of inadequate standards of hygiene in Scottish hospitals, in a report by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland, reflect an unacceptable level of carelessness in protecting patients.

That instruments used in procedures such as endoscopies should not be properly sterilised is inexcusable.

Considering the large amounts of cash that have been lavished on the NHS in recent years, it should be perfectly possible to carry out the necessary cleaning procedures with care and efficiency. Whatever the current restraints on spending, this is one area in which false economies are not acceptable.

If, as has been suggested, the problem is the culture of targets imposed on the NHS, then clinicians must make representations to the health authorities to have these rigid guidelines made more flexible. To risk infection for any reason whatsoever is dicing with patients' lives. Any hospital procedure is stressful for patients. They have a right to expect that hospitals will take every necessary precaution to safeguard their health. Any hospital-acquired infection is a reversal of the purpose of hospitalisation and a reproach to the NHS.

Patients also have a right to have their dignity respected when they are at their most vulnerable. The report's account of the indignities suffered by patients in mixed-sex facilities is also highly discreditable to some hospitals. These are serious defects in NHS provision which must be addressed without delay.