MRSA Action UK: Gordon Brown's not so deep clean initiative

Monday, 30 June 2008 12:00 AM

The much vaunted "Deep Clean" that the Prime Minister proclaimed to the British People at the Labour Party Conference last year, has not been that deep or clean after all. The Charity MRSA Action UK has seen evidence that after all the proclamations from this Government that the "Deep Clean" would restore our hospitals to their original pristine condition is a sham after all.

Information has been uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act that clearly shows that 85% of NHS Hospital Trusts did not use the correct cleaning products to "Deep Clean" their premises. In fact only 9% of all hospital trusts who replied to this request for information have actually used the correct products to ensure the "Deep Clean" was performed as per the Government's health watchdog's advice and guidance. Is it any wonder that over 30% of NHS Trusts have already breached the target of a 50% reduction in MRSA bacteraemias?

The information uncovered is a damning indictment on this Governments ability to deliver the promises made to the British people in controlling healthcare infections in our hospitals which will place in danger the lives of patients using the NHS.

Since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister and publicly announced that he was going to make Healthcare Infections his priority on Healthcare, we have seen his Government introduce several initiatives that they have proclaimed will drive down infections in our hospitals.

• Bare below the elbows
  
• The introduction of 5000 matrons
  
• The screening of Patients for MRSA.
  
• Deep Clean of Hospitals

The Prime Minister has stated publicly in his speech at the Labour Party Conference that he wanted,

"To make sure every hospital is clean and safe, following best practice around the world, there will be new funds direct to every hospital for a deep clean of our wards." "People need to feel confident that your hospital ward will always be clean, we will also deep clean all our hospitals. And we believe that these measures will together ensure that cleanliness in our hospitals, the safety of all patients is the foremost priority in our hospital service."

Alan Johnson also made it clear in September of last year, that there would be no unsafe care or unclean wards that can be tolerated, or will be tolerated.

Our Charity believes that the birth of the NHS was the most practical response to human need ever developed in a capitalist democracy and the NHS was a milestone in history, and was probably the most civilised move any country has ever taken. Sixty years ago the NHS was borne out of radical thinking combined with political courage. The Health Secretary made this comment in his speech to the Labour Party Conference last September but in our opinion it was playing to the audience of the British public.

Eradicating avoidable healthcare infections has to be in the words of a microbiologist, "An all or nothing affair, there can be no halfway house", and he was right. This Government led by Gordon brown has nonchalance on the subject of healthcare infections, and it is more interested in the spin rather than the substance.

In the coming week, Gordon Brown will be using the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the NHS to proclaim the success of this institution and to launch the Review of Lord Darzi on Tuesday. The reality on the ground is far different as will be shown on Thursday the 3rd July at Westminster Abbey when our Charity will pay tribute to the 50,000 who have died and the many hundreds of thousands who have suffered from MRSA alone since this Government came to power in 1997.

Our Charity is reminded of a comment by the NHS's first Health Secretary, Aneurin Bevan,

"The Prime Minister has an absolute genius for putting flamboyant labels on empty luggage." (Aneurin Bevan 1897-1960)

The report released today shows just how empty those promises are.

Derek Butler
Chair
MRSA Action UK
Registered Charity No 1115672
Tel: 07762 741114

Email: derek.butler@mrsaactionuk.net
http://mrsaactionuk.net

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