Now for Something Positive and some Random Whinging too!

I have been busting my arse trying to get this baby signed and I am happy to see that there are now well over 200 signatures!!!

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/nurseratios/

I hope that when the "appropriate Government Department" sees this petition that they don't immediately dismiss it as costing "too much money". Everyone except for stupid fuck politicians knows that more nurses per patient means that we have LESS EXPENSIVE COMPLICATIONS, DEATHS, COMPLAINTS, ETC ETC. The money saved far outweighs the cost of employing more staff. Well, that is the conclusion of everyone who has ever seriously studied and researched this issue. More research in the UK is needed but someone in this country is going to have to give a damn first.


Meanwhile Gordon Brown is going to piss money away trying to make the hospitals cleaner because that is supposed to eradicate MRSA and C-diff. Jesus Christ pass me the fucking Vodka. It's now official: Journalists and Politicians have never taken a basic microbiology course. Yes clean hospitals are important. Yes, hand washing is important. Yes MRSA definitely sucks ass.

You won't see the end of hospital acquired infections no matter what you do. You can reduce the number and good hygiene is always important for too many reasons to list here.

American hospitals are all private with 24 hour housekeeping/cleaners and mostly private rooms that are en-suite and they have a huge MRSA problem. Most people are colonized with MRSA but if you are healthy you don't know it. When you become elderly, frail, immunocompromised and have a nice open wound you might develop a problem. It's proven that most people are actually coming into hospital with mrsa on their person already.

Staph aureous has always lived on humans and caused problems in the weak and frail and sick since before jesus was born. Now this very same bacteria is antibiotic resistant as a result of overuse of antibiotics. Staph Aureous (SA) is now methicillan resistant (MR) so we now have MRSA. They are estimating that up to 70% of the population is carrying MRSA on their person. An infection control doc I once worked with in the States says that it is much higher than that number. Swab the locker room and equipment of the nice little gym you pay to work out in and you will find MRSA galore.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methicillin-resistant_Staphylococcus_aureus

I have said this over and over again. And don't even get me started on the c-diff and antibiotics.

Hospitals in the Netherlands contained their problems with MRSA by screening everyone prior to letting them walk in through the goddamn hospital doors.

MRSA is a killer but by far not the only one. We are probably losing more people as a result of "failure to rescue" because their nurse has too many other patients.

We have worse things to worry about than MRSA. But Gordon Brown wants to play politics so there it is folks. Spin Spin and more Spin.

Gordon Brown wants to close down wards for a week at a time for cleaning.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7008775.stm

In the News of the World, he vowed that over the next 12 months all hospitals would be restored to a pristine state of cleanliness to rid them of infections such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile.

Turnover of beds

He said: "A ward at a time, walls, ceilings, fittings and ventilation shafts will be disinfected and scrubbed clean."

There are many hospitals in England that are closing down wards and are heaving with patients that they cannot find beds for. The beds they have are filled with elderly patients who stay in hospitals for months and months because there are not enough long term care facilities.

Now Gordon is going to close down wards for cleaning for a week at a time! Fantastic! What a terrific idea! Too bad no one at the hospitals ever thought of that before! Oh wait. Actually they did think of it BUT THERE IS NO PLACE TO PUT THE FUCKING PATIENTS. They are overwhelmed already. They can't meet their A&E targets because there are no beds. We can't discharge most of our elderly medical patients because even though they are medically fit and do not need to be in hospital...there is no one to care for them. These people aren't safe to be left alone for 2 minutes in a padded locked room. Family members refuse to agree to nursing home care, are unable to look after the patient themselves..etc...etc. Takes months for social services to get their finger out. We have people for 4-6 months. Oh yeah and then there is the fact that you can deep clean the wards as much as you want..the patients will all be crammed into another place constantly coming in and going out....everything rush rush rush. I think Gordon smokes crack I really do.

You can bet your ass that Gordon is going to force the hospitals to close down wards for cleaning without providing the hospital with any kind of assistance (financial or anything) to deal with the crisis that is going to ensue from lack of beds etc. We recently lost a 35 bed ward and chaos has been ensuing ever since. Total fucking chaos from the minute it was closed and until right now. It's a mess. They couldn't afford to keep it open, they couldn't afford to lose the beds. Most of the hospitals in this country can't handle a loss of beds for any short period of time. How is he going to pull this off?

I do, however, like the idea of going to work and scrubbing and cleaning the ward for a few shifts. Sounds like a vacation day.