Patients at Rotorua Hospital are so revolted by hygiene standards they are rolling up their sleeves and scrubbing the toilets themselves.
Hospital officials have apologised for the conditions experienced by patients, and admitted it was "unacceptable" for patients to clean toilets themselves.
This requires somewhat more than an apology, quite simply it is unacceptable. It is probably this dereliction of basics in respect to health that has contributed to the spread of infections in our hospitals. Arguably it is hygiene, plumbing and sewage, that has made the biggest difference to human health and longevity ... medicine has, aside from antibiotics, ridden on the 'back' of this ... so how can they now, 'hop off the back of the golden horse' that has served them so well?
Dr. Barbara Starfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health desribes how the US health care system may contribute to poor health ... The Third Leading Cause of Death in the US
ALL THESE ARE DEATHS PER YEAR:
12,000 -- unnecessary surgery
7,000 -- medication errors in hospitals
20,000 -- other errors in hospitals
80,000 -- infections in hospitals
106,000 -- non-error, negative effects of drugs
These total to 225,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes!!
Little wonder that noro virus has infected so many of our hospitals, and those in our hospitals.
1 comment:
Several hundred years ago they figured out hygiene was the single most important factor in curbing the spread of disease and preventing infection.
For some reason, the health department think it is tied into the number of reports they can write. With 10,000 odd admin and office staff, it must be a real mystery to them what is going wrong.
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