BMJ  2007;335:221 (4 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.39289.658102.BE

Letters

Hand hygiene and the CMO

What about reducing turnover?

The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below.

The chief medical officer (CMO) states that hand washing is a major priority and quotes examples of poor practice by doctors and nurses.1 Like so many before him, he makes no mention of overuse of NHS facilities as being a critical factor in the battle against hospital infections because (presumably) it is so politically uncomfortable to do so.

Of course hand washing could be improved—but so could ward occupancy rates approaching 100% in acute wards. I suspect that we will never get significantly reduced rates of hospital acquired infection until we accept that wards must slow down their turnover, a solution which local managers cannot consider owing to intolerable pressure "from above" to improve so called efficiency.

Nigel G B Richardson, consultant surgeon

Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford CM1 7ET

Nigel.Richardson@meht.nhs.uk

Competing interests: None declared.

  1. Day M. Chief medical officer names hand hygiene and organ donation as public health priorities. BMJ 2007;335:113. (21 July.)[Free Full Text]

Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Chief medical officer names hand hygiene and organ donation as public health priorities
Michael Day
BMJ 2007 335: 113. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

What about reducing turnover?
Roger Ferguson
bmj.com, 8 Aug 2007 [Full text]
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ