Madam, - I read with surprise the report that the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick has decided to ban fresh flowers from wards as an infection control measure (The Irish Times, April 17th). Flowers are not a risk for hospital-acquired infection (HAI), though the presence of flowers in the clinical environment may represent additional work for already hard-pressed ward and other staff.
The prevention and control of HAI is best achieved by providing suitable facilities for the care of acutely ill patients and by compliance with best practice, such as in the area of hand hygiene, by all healthcare professionals. Environmental cleaning contributes by reducing the potential microbial burden, but even with very high standards of hospital hygiene, bacteria will be found on surfaces and floors in clinical areas.
Flowers and potted plants do contain bacteria, but not those which cause HAI. Viewing and inhaling flowers on a window ledge or on a bedside locker does not pose a risk of HAI but may give pleasure to patients - including the terminally ill, who may never again see or smell flowers outside the hospital.
Recent guidelines on the control and prevention of MRSA in the UK and Ireland do not recommend the banning of fresh flowers. Similarly, Irish guidelines on managing outbreaks of norovirus (winter vomiting bug) make no mention of fresh flowers as a factor in control. This is because there is no scientific evidence that fresh flowers are a risk to the vast majority of patients in hospital.
Strategies to control and prevent HAI should be based on the available scientific evidence and on common sense. We should not penalise patients by depriving them of a simple pleasure because of our own inadequacies or those of our health service. Yours, etc,
HILARY HUMPHREYS, Professor of Clinical Microbiology, RCSI and Consultant Microbiologist, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin 9.