Madam, – It is distressing that that seven hospitals are now closed to visitors because of the norovirus infection (winter vomiting bug), but the complacency with which this news is greeted is even more distressing.
The presence of this infection in Irish hospitals at all seasons of the year is a proof – if we needed one – of the failure of the infection control strategies which are supposed to protect patients. If the year-round vomiting bug is not being tackled, neither are the other, more dangerous, infections.
However, this situation is not surprising. We learned from the audit published by the Health Information and Quality Authority a few days before Christmas that conditions in six hospitals were found to pose immediate risk to patients. The response to this risk was to send letters to the hospitals involved asking them to improve. I am sure hospital managements were quaking in their shoes.
Here then, is the nub of the problem. The HIQA can propose all the infection prevention strategies it likes, but until there is a way to impose sanctions on those who do not put these strategies into action, it is an expensive and frustrating waste of time. Human nature being what it is, there are some people who will not do the right thing unless they know they will be found out and punished. It is as simple as that. – Yours, etc,