Warning over hygiene standards

LONG-term health prospects of hundreds of hospital patients are being put at risk because wards are dirty and staff ignore basic hygiene rules, it has been claimed.

An Ipswich woman has hit out at the standards of cleanliness at Ipswich Hospital and accused staff of not taking the super-bug MRSA seriously.

Emma Donald has said staff at the hospital were reluctant to treat her father in an isolation ward and failed to wash their hands before and after treating him, even though they knew he had contracted the MRSA bug.

Mrs Donald's father, Ronnie Haggar, had a heart bypass operation at Papworth Hospital in April last year, but contracted MRSA while he was there.

Mr Haggar's recovery from the heart operation has been hampered by the bug, which has left him weak and with limited mobility.

Also a diabetic, Mr Haggar, 61, was admitted to Ipswich Hospital in March this year when a clash of medicines meant his diabetes worsened.

But it was here, says Mrs Donald, that staff failed to take heed of her warnings that he had MRSA and needed to be kept in isolation.

"He was admitted on to a general ward and I told them he had MRSA, and eventually they moved him into isolation," she said.

"There was blood on the floor, I was trying to clean it up myself and I was told not to do it because I could catch something - but that's exactly why I was cleaning it up, I was worried about my dad.

"I think I was embarrassing them by doing it myself."

Mrs Donald also claims her father was treated by staff who didn't wear gloves and then went on to treat other patients, potentially putting them at risk of also catching MRSA.

"Not all the staff wash their hands or wear gloves or aprons when carrying out procedures and one nurse told me it was her preference not to wear gloves. I felt like saying it was my preference that my father didn't catch anything.

"My dad is extremely frightened of going into hospital wards now and I take my own cleaning fluid in with me."