Sir, – Apropos of the report “Beaumont putting patients at risk due to poor hygiene” (September 4th), I am prompted to ask why we have to wait over one and a half centuries to implement the well-proven practices of hand-washing introduced by Ignaz Semmelweis (1847) and Joseph Lister (1867)? – Yours, etc,
EOIN O’BRIEN,
Prof of Molecular Pharmacology, UCD,
Clifton Terrace,
Monkstown, Co Dublin.
Sir, – Two years ago I spent a week on a cruise boat. The shipping line took the matter of health and hygiene so seriously that no one could enter any dining area without a member of staff ensuring hand gel was applied in the correct manner. This happened at every meal time.
Compare that to my recent visits to a leading southside Dublin hospital. You cannot enter the hospital building without hearing the Tannoy voice asking you to use the hand gel, but it ends there. Based on my observations I estimated the compliance to be 20 per cent at most for the public. What was more frightening, however, was that not one single member of staff who passed through used the gel dispensers.
If we are serious about hygiene in hospitals, it is time for a proactive approach. Administrators cannot think they have done everything in their power by providing recorded messages and hand gel dispensers. Someone has to take responsibility for enforcement too, until cleanliness becomes routine.
Many years ago in this country it was considered normal to spit in the streets, and measures were taken to change that practice. We now need a similar change in attitudes and behaviour in relation to basic hygiene in hospitals. – Yours, etc,
ORLA de COGAN,
Arkle Square, Brewery Road,
Stillorgan, Co Dublin.