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Mike Stanley MD of Teal Patents delivered a hopeful message at the recent infection control conference, but began with a stark warning.
"Between 2004 and 2006, four national news papers, the Times, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and the Independent printed 2,125 articles on Healthcare Acquired Infections (HCAIs)" said Mr. Stanley (pictured).
"What effect have these articles had on our hard working Health Practitioners carrying out their vital work? Surely this type of bad press can only lead to low morale particularly when the finger is pointed at poor hand hygiene.
"What about the general public? The result of all this negative publicity on the population is that by 2006 a massive 94% of the public were afraid of going into hospital and felt angry at the prospect of catching an HCAI.
"As infected patients need to be isolated, it is estimated that the cost to the NHS £4,000.00 per patient. In addition, prolonged stays take up vital beds.
"In the UK the Department of Health reports that in 2006 the 300,000 cases of HCAIs result in 5,000 deaths. This means that one patient is infected every 2 minutes and one dies every 2 hours.
"Then there is the cost of litigation and 287 cases have cost £12.5M, with the highest profile case, that of the actress Leslie Ash, achieving £1M."
Having discussed the development of plumbed-in sinks and their alternatives, along with their inherent problems, Mr. Stanley issued a positive message to the healthcare and medical sectors.
"Already under test is the new ‘Prowash’ version of the Hygienius®" he continued.
"This model is designed to match exactly the water delivery requirements of the NHS National Patient Safety Agencies recommendations as shown in their definitive document:- 'Hand-washing technique with soap and water.'"
Mr. Stanley concluded with the warning "Whatever happens in the future, one thing is certain. As new products are introduced to combat HCAIs, then HCAIs will rapidly evolve into new and more baffling forms".
The full presentation Beating HCAIs – Hot Water Hand Washing Re-invented is available as an 80KB PDF document.
