If you ever find yourself in hospital and the doctor asks you to ‘open wide’ you might want to ask him to wash his hands first…
According to a new report, more than three in ten hospital doctors don’t wash their hands between visiting different patients. This could prove fatal if a doctor visited a patient with something contagious and then went to visit a patient with a weak immune system.
The poor hygiene habits of consultants and junior doctors was found out after the Health Service Executive (HSE) carried out an audit to see how well hospital staff are dealing with the strict infection-control rule – they aren’t doing too good, apparently.
It was found that only 69 per cent of hospital doctors washed their hand between patients, which is only marginally up from the 61 per cent it was at last July. The most compliant staff members were nurses and midwives who were recorded at 86.2 per cent.
The recommended target set by the HSE is an 85 per cent compliance rate and the whole idea is to help protect against the hospital superbug MRSA. Looks like the lads in the white coats have some catching up to do.
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