Doctors are hindering the NHS’s increasingly successful fight against hospital superbugs by not washing their hands often enough, an official report warns today.
The National Audit Office says that while good progress is being made in tackling hospital-acquired infections, not all NHS staff practice basic hygiene measures. “Compliance with good infection control practice is improving, but doctors remain less likely to comply”, says the public spending watchdog in a report assessing the NHS’s struggle against bugs such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile.
“Overall, nurses have been quicker to improve their clinical practice in relation to healthcare-associated infection than doctors, for example with higher levels of compliance with basic hand hygiene. In our surveys, doctors and, in particular junior doctors were viewed by trust staff as less likely to comply with infection control policies, including policies on hand hygiene”, it added.
Read more at The Guardian.
Tags: HAI
