A hygiene audit of hospitals is to be carried out this summer by external consultants, Minister of State for Health Tim O'Malley revealed.
"The results of the audit are expected to inform the national standards for infection control and cleaning," he added.
"The Health Service Executive (HSE) is responsible for the follow-through on the ground of pragmatic and concrete efforts to deal with this challenge and to ensure that patients receive appropriate levels of protection.
Standards of hygiene must be upheld and the Minister is committed to ensuring this." Mr O'Malley was replying to John McGuinness (FF, Carlow-Kilkenny) who said that a recent public meeting in Kilkenny was attended by over 150 people, representing individuals and their families who had been affected by MRSA, the hospital superbug.
"The group was representative of the whole country. People travelled from Galway, Dublin, Cork and Ennis." He was horrified, he added, by the cases recounted at the meeting. "One of the issues complained of by most people was that MRSA is not even spoken about in the hospitals.
In one case where a lady with MRSA asked for her file under the Freedom of Information Act, an official stood with her as she looked through it. She noted that the nurse had put a note on the file to the effect that this lady had MRSA and was not to be told." Mr McGuinness said that a better alcohol-based hand wash was where one should start dealing with the problem.
"A public awareness campaign needs to be undertaken to advise all patients, or those visiting hospitals, of the problem. We need to put money into the system, so that various handwash points can be provided in wards and isolation units made available."
Mr O'Malley said that the strategy for the control of antimicrobial resistance in Ireland, SARI, including MRSA, was launched by the Department of Health in June 2001. Since then, approximately €230 million in funding had been made available under the strategy. This funding, he said, was in addition to normal hospital funding arrangements for infection control.
Improving the standards of cleanliness in hospitals was a priority, he added. "One of the specific actions identified by the Minister for Health in the 10-point plan to improve the delivery of accident and emergency services refers to the need to address this particular issue."
