Kingston Hospital Cleanliness

Kingston Hospital’s staff deserve our special thanks for the massive improvements they’ve made in hygiene and cleanliness over the last two years.

Having myself raised problems around poor cleaning at Kingston Hospital over several years, I’m particularly delighted to welcome this success.

Kingston Hospital’s progress is now held up NHS-wide – not least as it is England’s only acute hospital trust to achieve the double success of no cases of MRSA in the first 5 months of this year and a “Triple Green” rating for hygiene, after an unannounced spot check by the independent Healthcare Commission. Added to this, C difficile cases are way down, with targets being smashed.

The NHS as a whole still must work harder on tackling cleanliness and hospital-acquired infections. In this year’s first 3 months, while there were not a single case of MRSA at Kingston, across the rest of England’s NHS, there were 836 cases – though even this represented a national reduction of 40%.

Kingston point to many factors behind their advance. These range from a dedicated infection prevention and control team to a new skin disinfectant, from a much tougher cleaning contract to a new policy of “bare below the elbows” for staff with direct patient contact. Hardly rocket science, perhaps, but effective.

Kingston Hospital know the challenge is to sustain this fantastic progress. Yet if hospital visitors play their part too, along with the staff, Kingston could remain at the top.

When some politicians only seem to want to knock Kingston Hospital, the NHS and its staff, I think it’s right to acknowledge hard work and success.