East Surrey Hospital has been given a clean bill of health for its hygiene standards by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), a report revealed today. Inspectors visited the hospital in early April and found that Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust which runs the hospital now fully meets the hygiene code.
This follows three months of intense activity after a previous inspection found that the hospital was in breach of three of the 16 measures that make up the hygiene code – the regulation to protect patients, workers and others from the risks of acquiring a healthcare-associated infection.
Staff took immediate actions to remedy the lapse when it was reported at the end of January, including intense cleaning, monitoring, and replacement of furniture and equipment. As part of the on-going monitoring, from next month supervisors and matrons are going to be using hand held computers to monitor cleaning on the spot, which will help supervising staff to keep standards high.
The Trust’s Director of Nursing, Quality and Governance Mary Sexton said: \
“Breaching the hygiene code was simply not acceptable. Patient safety is our first and utmost priority. We took immediate action to address the CQC concerns. We have brought in 489 new mattresses and installed nearly 400 patient chairs, trolleys and other patient furniture. We have increased our cleaning and monitoring and introduced an improved hygiene programme for staff.
“This is recognition by the CQC of the progress we have made and I would like to thank staff for the commitment they have shown in putting this right. We cannot forget however this is an ongoing programme, and every one of us at the hospital has a part to play in maintaining a safe patient environment”.
For 2009/10 the Trust has also met the national reduction targets for MRSA BSI and Clostridium Difficile and will continue to focus on reducing the avoidable cases to zero.
Thanks a lot for using the effort and time to publish something so exciting.