Busy hospital staff rely on visitors to share responsibility for hygiene

Last updated at 17:12, Wednesday, 25 June 2008

SIR – I am writing on behalf of the Intensive Care staff at the West Cumberland Hospital. We were saddened and upset by the comments made by Ms Banks in The Whitehaven News on June 4.

We work extremely hard as a team to provide the highest standards of care for our patients and, while we are often stretched to our limits, our patients remain our number one priority.
In most cases we are responsible for the care of critically ill and often very unstable patients. Without the skills and dedication of our team many patients, especially children, would not be stable enough to even make the journey to another hospital such as Newcastle, for specialist care.
We are one of a minority of district hospitals who care for paediatrics and we pride ourselves that we can offer this service in such a rural area.
While hand hygiene is of course a high priority and staff are regularly audited on their practice, we are often focused on simply keeping the patient alive! In these situations we rely on relatives and visitors to use common sense and to share the responsibility for hand hygiene. There are numerous posters throughout the hospital and at each bed space reminding visitors about the importance of hand hygiene.
As the posters state, alcohol gel is freely available and national guidelines suggest that unless there is active diarrhoea and vomiting on the unit or a patient is admitted with diarrhoea or vomiting, then hand gels are sufficient in place of washing with soap and water. However, visitors are always welcome to use soap and water if they prefer, although it is not always necessary.
With respect to the bag of clothes Ms Banks says was left on the floor; staff are not permitted to dispose of a patient’s clothing whatever its condition and while it would be unethical to comment on this case specifically, we routinely and repeatedly ask families to remove all patient property as we have no facilities to store personal items.
We are grateful for Ms Banks’ suggestions as we are always looking to improve our practice and would urge others with similar comments to speak to any member of staff about their concerns or to place a comment in the prominently displayed suggestions box in the visitors’ room.
At a time when our local services are in question we are grateful for the comments of the many visitors and relatives who have given us positive support over the years and particularly in response to Ms Banks’ letter.
INTENSIVE CARE STAFF
West Cumberland Hospital

SIR – I write in response to the gentleman who wrote in answer to my daughter’s letter on hospital hygiene. I’m afraid he missed the point – my daughter was critical of the control and funding of hygiene, not the staff who have to deal with it. In fact there can be few families who owe more to those NHS staff than ours does.
My 10-year-old grandson Kynan was hit by a car on the pelican crossing at Rutland Avenue on February 5, suffering life-threatening injuries. Our NHS did not let my grandson down; it saved his life, brought him back from a near coma, nursed him to recovery, and then went on to find a surgical alternative to amputation.
As you can imagine, we’ve seen a number of hospitals over the last few months, but the hygiene requirements are all different. At Newcastle General you cannot get into any ward without being buzzed in. When you enter, you must wash your hands, or you are challenged by any member of staff. They have a sink for every two patients. If you go to another part of the ward you must wash your hands before returning to the bedside.
At Leeds, albeit a teaching hospital, although the same door controls exist, the hand-washing is left to the visitor. There, Kynan got C Diff due to his being given an antibiotic for a chest infection that followed his surgery. Apparently this antibiotic allowed the bug, that is already dormant in 66% of children, to take hold. Isolation, strict hygiene controls, and a different antibiotic, quickly remedied the situation.
Here in Cumbria, even in Intensive Care, we were able to walk in and stand at his bedside. We were never asked to wash, or use gel. At the time we were grateful for such access and understanding, but on seeing the unit in Newcastle, we understood how different our resources were. There was no difference in the quality of the staff, only in the resources they were expected to cope with.
We should have a fully-equipped casualty; an ITU that has children’s beds; and sufficient staff to maintain life until they can be transferred to a specialist unit. This is not a request – it is a demand. The people of this area have the same rights as any other; it may take longer to get to such units, but they are ours of right. It’s our NHS: customers and staff alike, not some petty, penny-pinching bureaucrat in an office in London or wherever, never more than a mile from such facilities.
Let’s get some money spent, on both staff and resources, remove the shackles of endless paperwork, and let our NHS staff do the jobs they are so dedicated to.
Dave BANKS
Thornhill

SIR – We regularly hear criticism of the NHS and, in particular, our local hospital.
Recently, my mother was rushed to WCH by ambulance following an unexpected serious illness. From the very moment we called for help, we received nothing but the utmost in professional service. From the emergency doctor, the ambulance crew, Doctor ‘Neil’ in A&E, Beverley the nurse and all the wonderful staff on Coronary Care. I cannot fault the way in which each and every one of them treated us and the care my mother received was second to none.
Our hospital staff work under very difficult circumstances. The resources they have are limited and they are often subject to violence and abuse by some members of our community. We should be proud of our local hospital and the people who work within it.
Sandra DEMPSEY
Address supplied
A big thank-you from Sea Cadets
SIR – On behalf of the cadets and staff at TS Bee, may I extend our most sincere thanks to Gerard Richardson, Iain Irving and everyone involved with the Whitehaven Festival Company, plus the Harbour Commissioners, for their generous gift of the Laser Pico sailing dinghy which was presented to us last Friday.
As far as we knew, we had simply been invited by Gerard to take part in the opening of The Gift. We had absolutely no idea at all that we were going to be presented with anything, least of all a new boat.
The Sea Cadets are entirely voluntary and we receive no funding, so raising the money for extra equipment is always a very long, slow process and a new Pico has been at the top of our wish list for some time. This gift will be a tremendous boost to us and, in particular, to the young people of Whitehaven who are at the heart of everything we do. In fact, the timing is perfect – 12 of our Junior Cadets (aged 10-12) recently took part in a training weekend and all returned home with a basic RYA sailing qualification.
The new boat will allow us to team them up with an older, more experienced cadet and have some serious fun on the water during the summer holidays.
As they gain confidence, skill and experience they, too, will pass some of that to new cadets in the future. This is not simply a gift to a small group of Whitehaven children this year, but one that will benefit dozens more over a period of several years.
We will of course be at the Mayor’s Parade in Bootle next Sunday, the Carnival on the following Saturday – we will be in the parade and at Castle Park, so please come and say hello – and at the Sea Sunday service on July 13. After that we will be putting our new boat through its paces in the Outer Harbour.
If any young person might be interested in joining the Sea Cadets, we would love to hear from you. Please email enquiries@tsbee.org.uk or give us a call on 01946 66093 on any Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday evening.
Finally, thank you all once again – including those groups of people who made us feel very special when they stopped and gave us a spontaneous round of applause as we marched along the harbourside last weekend.
David ABBOTT
Deputy Chairman
Whitehaven Sea Cadets, TS Bee
PO closures: sad but not a surprise
SIR – I am angry and disappointed, but sadly not surprised, to learn that all eight proposed closures of Post Offices in Copeland are to go ahead.
There would have been difficulties keeping some post offices open whoever had been in government. Nevertheless, the cack-handed way that Post Offices Ltd were instructed by Cabinet minister John Hutton to close up to 2,500 post offices almost guaranteed that some of those post offices which were most needed, and which could and should have been saved, will now close. Parliament could have forced a rethink of these proposals, and some MPs of all parties voted to do so. Sadly those, including the MP for Copeland, who voted against a rethink, supporting instead the government policy which included that closure programme, won the vote.
Councillors from both the Conservative and Labour parties, members of a wide range of community organisations, and other local residents, worked together to assemble a very strong case, which was submitted to the Post Office by Copeland Council, that the closure proposals for West Cumbria were badly thought through, undesirable, and harmful. Sadly this case has fallen on deaf ears.
I am particularly concerned that Post Offices Ltd and the government have ignored our arguments that
The proportion of post offices to be closed in West Cumbria in general, and Copeland in particular, is well above the national target: Post Offices Ltd are aiming to close about 18% of Post Offices nationally and in Cumbria but are shutting 25% of offices in Copeland. By allowing this the government is breaking the spirit of their promises on "West Cumbria Proofing"
An extraordinarily high proportion of those post offices in Copeland which have good disabled access have been targeted for closure. In several cases Post Office chiefs are closing branches where both they and the owners recently spent significant sums of money to make the sites compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
The cumulative effect of several closures in the same area will be severe for some parts of Copeland. For example, the area north of Whitehaven from Bransty Hill onwards has already lost Bransty post office and is now also losing Lowca, Parton, and the nearest remaining post office in Whitehaven, Tangier Street.
These closures are a sad day for Copeland and West Cumbria, and many vulnerable people in our communities will regret it.

The problem does not end here. If we want to save the post offices we still have, we need to use them, and the government needs to stop taking business away from them. The government should extend the contract on the Post Office card account - if they lose that business there will be another wave of closures. Measures like the steps taken by Copeland council to enable council bills to be paid at post offices are an example of what can be done, and the government should learn the same lesson.
Cllr Chris WHITESIDE
Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Copeland
Party plans to stand against MP
SIR – The Politics Show on BBC1 on Sunday featured the Labour MP Jamie Reed, clearly showing that he and the Labour Party have no answers whatsoever for the increasingly dire problems facing the people of Copeland.
A general election cannot come quick enough and when Gordon Brown finds the backbone or finds that the maximum time limit has expired forcing the election, we, the British National Party, intend to stand a very strong candidate against MP Reed.
We have financial backers in Copeland who have already pledged serious financial support to run a top class election campaign but more to the point, rest assured that every one of the 200,000 leaflets we intend to use in a general election in Copeland will now contain the epic quote, given to us – straight from the horse’s mouth – by MP Reed, on the Politics Show: “I don’t know where we stop... but more to the point I don’t, actually, know where we start.”
The balance of power in Cumbria will not be decided on the percentage swing to the Conservatives; it will be decided by the entrance of the British National Party into the next general election.
Clive JEFFERSON
Organiser, Copeland BNP
Complaint to Northern Rail
SIR – Further to the letter I sent to Northern Rail about problems I experienced travelling on a train with my guide dog (Letters, June 5), I have received the following reply:
“Dear Mr Stoker
Thank you for your recent email.
I was sorry to learn of your experience when you travelled from Newcastle to Whitehaven with your guide dog on the 31st May 2008.
I can appreciate that you had a distressing and uncomfortable journey.
We are aware that a large proportion of our trains can be very busy and that a large number of passengers regularly stand during their journeys. With every available train in use I hope you will appreciate that there are limitations to what capacity enhancements we can make with our current fleet of trains.
It has been widely reported that rail passenger numbers have increased considerably across the network in the last few years and tackling the associated overcrowding is a very real challenge for us. The particular problems faced by passengers in the North were specifically mentioned in the Government’s White Paper on the future of rail travel which was published last year. The Department for Transport (DfT) recently followed this up with an announcement that it is expected that an additional 182 carriages will be introduced to our fleet over the next five years. We are already working with the DfT to develop detailed plans for their phased introduction. Although the exact number is provisional it would represent an increase over our existing fleet of approximately 30%.
I can also understand why you have expressed concern about the safety of running a train with a large number of standing passengers. However, I would like to reassure you that your safety is of paramount importance and to put it simply: we will not run a train unless it is safe to do so.
The Rail Industry is very heavily regulated and our compliance with all safety regulations is very strictly and independently monitored. Similarly, our emergency planning does take into account the possibility of the train being “fully loaded”. Customers are allowed to stand in the aisles since they would be able to move in the event of an emergency. The safety announcement refers to inanimate objects such as luggage, which would cause a serious obstruction to passengers.”
Bob STOKER
Overend Road, Whitehaven
Ricky’s show a big let down
SIR – Having been to the Civic Hall on Saturday, May 31, I feel impelled to write with my views.
I was part of a six-person group and was thrilled to have secured front row seats. My party were disappointed to say the least by the so called Ricky Tomlinson Comedy Show. It should have been more aptly named “old comedians sponsored by Ricky Tomlinson”. He was no more than a compere!
The show was something you would expect to see in a working men’s club or the end of the pier at Blackpool for no more than £10 – not £18 each.
Ricky Tomlinson himself was only interested in our wallets (when he was on stage), blatantly touting his book at every opportunity.
I’m sorely disappointed and feel I, my group and indeed the Civic Hall have all been misled by the agent promoting this show under the pretence that Ricky Tomlinson can do stand-up comedy. Don’t get me wrong, the three comedians were entertaining, if a little dated, but not what I had expected for my £18.
Jacqueline BATTY
Address supplied
Wind turbines are way to go
SIR – At last, after a fight of 13 years, permission has been granted to build the wind turbine farm at Fairfield near Pica, which is exceptionally good news.
It is no wonder the Labour Party is in disarray with the lowest rating ever when their own party members vote against their own government policies, namely renewable energy - wind turbines.
Just think about it, if all schools and public buildings had wind turbines in Great Britain this would save millions of pounds and also help the dreaded global warming with the only pollution-free method of generating electricity.
James TAYLOR
Mid-Town Close, Distington
NSPCC grateful for generosity
SIR – A coffee morning and plant sale held recently at Lamplugh raised over £560. This successful event was arranged by friends in the Kirkland area for the Egremont NSPCC.
During the same week £350 was collected at the Tesco store in Whitehaven. These two amounts will be invaluable in assisting the work of the local Wedgewood Centre and are testament to the generosity of local people to the cause of the NSPCC.
Margaret ALDERSON
Secretary, Egremont NSPCC
Memories of days gone by
SIR – When I was on the staff of the Cumbria Record Office in Carlisle, some records of St Bees College were deposited and it fell to me to list them (this was before the Whitehaven Record office opened).
Among them was a large batch of letters from its old students to the Principal. Two remain in my memory. One was from a newly-ordained curate in the East End slums of Bethnal Green in London: “Much! Much!! Much!!! We need light. Can you send me 10/6?”
The other was from a student who had failed his final exams: “I am in a quandary for my failure – I cannot blame the college, and I really cannot blame myself.” 10/6 would be about £20 now, in what it would buy. No reply was included.
Jeremy GODWIN
Drovers Lane, Penrith