Hospital is praised in new report
But still‘room for progress’
NHS Lanarkshire have praised the latest ‘positive’ Healthcare Environment Inspectorate (HEI) report on Hairmyres which saw improved standards at the hospital.
The HEI published a report this week about its unannounced inspection visit to Hairmyres Hospital on May 9 and 10 this year.
Overall the report was good with staff being commended for infection control precautions and management being acknowledged for good leadership.
All patients surveyed were positive about the standard of cleanliness in their wards with 97 per cent stating that they thought the standard of cleanliness on their wards was good, and 97 per cent stating that the equipment used by staff for their care was clean.
One patient said: “I’ve seen staff under beds cleaning, it’s very good. They tend to take a pride in their job, they do that extra mile.”
Another said: “It would seem that nursing staff do as much cleaning if not more than cleaning staff – this needs to be recognised.”
However four recommendations were made to the health board to ensure it complies with HEI standards.
NHS Lanarkshire must ensure they respond to low audit results and provides support and advice to the medical receiving unit; that staff in Ward 1 are aware of the risks associated with the storage of aprons; must ensure that sufficient resource is available in the medical receiving unit (ward 2) to make sure domestic cleaning, patient equipment cleaning and maintenance issues can be identified, reported, recorded and responded to in a timely manner and must ensure that patient seating and bedrails are clean and ready for use for each patient.
It was also recommended that the health board should ensure that single patient use toiletries are only available for single patient use and are discarded when no longer required by the patient and that they should review the current system for cleaning patient transport chairs to ensure all chairs are clean and ready for use.
Inspectors found that a number of patient seats were contaminated with blood and body fluids on the sides of cushions and the underside, or were in a poor state of repair. A number of patient equipment including bedrails, bed frames, intravenous pumps and stand aids were also found to be dirty or contaminated.
Emer Shepherd, NHS Lanarkshire’s head of infection prevention and control, said: “Overall this is a positive report and we are pleased that the inspectors have recognised the hard work that has taken place to improve standards at Hairmyres Hospital.
“We are also pleased that inspectors found staff knowledge of standard infection control precautions to be good, and that there was good leadership in relation to infection prevention and control.
“We are committed to making further improvements and work is already underway to address the requirements detailed in the report.
“We will continually monitor progress to ensure we strive for the highest standards of cleanliness and infection control at Hairmyres.”
I’ve seen staff under beds cleaning