How clean was your hospital?

[mumfor1sttime]

Following on from the news of hospitals not being clean enough - just wondered about your views?
btw - the hospital I stayed in was lousy - toilets were filthy and I wasnt shown where to put my rubbish/dirty nappies or dirty laundry. There were also no clean covers for my ds crib, so I got dh to bring blankets in from home.Had to walk from recovery room to the ward including stairs after c section- to find no bed....the list is too long!

Sorry, just realised that sounds as though I gave birth to dd in a toilet! I didn't - thank God!

Mine was absolutely spotless. Cleaned top to bottom every day, including beds stripped and mattresses swabbed. Slip covers on bed were changed as soon as any gunk on them, so several times in the first 36 hours. Fanatical about hand washing - everyone who came into room - nurses, paed, obs, physio and cleaners washed hand in Hibiscrub before doing anything. Bathrooms also absolutely spotless.

Anchovy, was that a private hospital? It sounds nothing like any NHS hospital I have been in, and I know quite a few.

I packed my own liquid soap - Dr. Bronner's, wipes, disposable brushes - Lakeland does fab ones, disposable gloves, thick bleach and a can of some stuff called Lysol my mum sends over that kills viruses as well as bacteria, just in case.

Yes, it was. It pisses me off because you shouldn't have to pay for cleanliness. I had both of mine privately (insurance jobs )and the facilities were fantastic - great food, open visiting, immaculately clean, relaxed and unstretched staff, overnight stays and meals for DH whenever he wanted, etc). I am genuinely stunned when I hear about cleanliness in other places - like week old blood clot in plug.

NdeP - I would if I was in there now but at the time I just sort of accepted it... Now I'm full of the confidence and assertiveness that only comes from MN

i think it isn't just cleanliness of hospitals that is the issue with this news report.
I had a scare at 220 weks or so and was admitted to Lewisham hospital labour ward..which i just couldn't be live. they were stretched anyway, as the midwife in charge and gynae doctor that saw me said, and they both rather abruptly told me 'you shouldn't be on this ward your baby isn't viable'. this coupled with the fact that the labour ward looked very dirty (pools of blood on bathroom floor- which is enough to scare anyone off), and a woman next to me, who had been in labour for 35 hours was yelling for a nurse who took far too long to come, even my dp was asking if he could help!..was enough to make me press for a change of hospital. i am now planning to give birth at st thomas', which a couple of my riends can only praise..i hope it will be a little better.
my out patient antental care at lewisham was great, really nice attentive staff and sonographers, but that isn't enough, and it is also the third highest hospital in the country for incidences of mrsa..not good at all.

although in the interest o ffairness i should add..i was in lewisham hospital early in the pregnancy on the gynae ward, and it was immaculately clean, very modern, sheeets were changeed twice a day..which i thought unnecesary, but stil good, and i had my own (spotless) room with ensuite shower and toilet.perhaps it is just labour wards that are overstreched, and understaffed. i know my friend was training to be a midwife and left the course, as she had very little hands on training, and got into serious debt.

These comments are like they're describing something from the Crimea - rather than modern western hospitals in the 21st century.

And people have suggested I'm irresponsible and / or brave for going for a home birth...??

Post-natal ward: silverfish scuttling round floors, a blood-soaked towel was left on the bathroom floor for over two days, the single room I moved into had old crisp packets under the bed...

Children's ward when DS was in later: filthy stains in the sink in our side room, dust and debris under the bed, sticky unidentified stains on the cot bars, cleaners drifting aimlessly through the wards running a duster over half a bed-tray rather than moving the nurses notes that were on top of it, and cleaning it properley, clinical waste bin in DS's room was not emptied in the whole 3 days he was there...

This is in a hospital with 3 starts.

maternity rooms in my hospiatl were quite clean and visitors told to wash hands before entering.
Childrens ward when dd had an op were o.k (not to MY standard but not filthy, but kind hearted nurse brought dd (then aged 2) a box of toy animals to play with which were AWFUL!!

my nan was in hospital recently - great thing about her is that she was an orderly in a manchester hospital when there were matrons on the wards - and my mum was a nurse too. she kept telling me how filthy it was and how filthy the toilets were - she was convinced she wouldnt get out alive as she would get "that MLSR bug that eats you" so we got stories about how matrons should be reintroduced.

i thought it looked ok - i noticed the metal under the bed was dusty and there were odd bits of rubbish - but i wouldnt have called that filthy - until i watched the prog on the telly which explained the ramifications and how easily cross infections can occur becuae of this

yes - its right cos it said so on the telly
...well some of prog must be true?

ds was in hospital for a fortnight when he was six months and I stayed with him. I took cleaning stuff with me. I cleaned the bathroom before and after using and also ds room. I asked for sheets and changed the bed myself. I washed up snack things and cleaned the snack kitchen every day. I was bored stiff so it gave me something to do.

I would say - take some disposable gloves and some cleaning stuff and leave the place better than when you found it. Obviously you can't do this if you are really ill but IMO some people treat hospitals as though they are hotels and expect the staff to clean up after them. If you leave trimmings from your flowers in the sink the cleaners will be cleaning that up rather than wiping up some potential health hazard. I reckon that the old fashioned matron never had to cope with some of the slovenly behaviour I saw when I was in hospital as people seemed to have more pride in those days.

The ward I was in with DS was revolting although delivery suite was OK.
The ward had carpet on the floor so could never be mopped. Toilets were yucky - bins in toilets overflowed with used towels. Shower was also dirty.

I was very glad to leave

I don't know if it is any better now - that was almost 5 years ago

Just read Tommy's post about bloody sheets. Yep, I had to endure that with all 4 babies. Worse, with my first baby, I gave birth in a hospital gown and it had quite a bit of blood on it. I was still wearing it over 12 hours later when my parents came to visit. I had not been washed after giving birth at that point either. I had got up at one point to wash but came over whoozy so the MW suggested I went back to bed. I thought she would bring me a bowl and bed bath me but no, I was just left. Only when my mother came did I get a wash because she helped me to the bathroom.

At least when I had dd (in the hospital with disgusting toilets) someone was sent in to wash me while I was still in the delivery suite. I didn't really like her washing my privates and I particularly did not like it when she told me she was late because she had been dispatched to wait at the locked door for the pizzas the staff had ordered (while dh and I waited in the delivery suite, bored, tired and hungry) but at least I was cleaned.

highlander - I was moved to ward next day after c section. But was a big struggle.

Can I add that my sheets were also never changed- had blood all over them, I layed a blanket over my sheet and layed on that. It was far too hot in Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital anyway - left there with a heat rash!

wow was lucky both times - having babes on two different sides of the world. Dd1 born in the UK by c-section.. although I had my own room and ensuite becuase she was very ill and in ICU, it was spotless, was given a sponge bath and helped into my own pjs in a matter of hours after giving birth - pretty soon as I got into the room almost. THe room was cleaned daily and sheets changed whilst I was visiting dd1 in SCBU.

Dd2 was on a ward - spotless room, bathroom etc was spotless... shared the bathroom etc with three other women, only two of us were in the whole week - one who was in for observation after problem arose during pregnancy and me - c-section.

Even when dd1 had to be in a couple of different hospitals - both were very clean - can't say the same for the parent's accommodation area in the London hospital. It did amuse dh and I though as the cleaners worked so slowly it was as if someone had videoed them and then put it through slow motion.... I thought they might fall over they were sweeping too slowly.

i took li to our local hospital the other day for an eye test and i can honestly say i have never seen a clearer hospital, but we were only there an hour and it is quite small, u are made to sanitise your hands on entering the hospital and when u leave and it smelt clean, the rooms were spotless

1 birth at the JR in Oxford. Spotless, or at least it looked it to me, especially the bathrooms and toilets. It may be that my very low cleaning standards are easily met by the NHS however.

Please please complain vigorously if you experience lousy conditions like this. Ring the PALS for the trust while bored on the ward or just drop a postcard to the chief exec. And why can't we name hospitals on here?

acnebride - please email me - I need to get some more information from you re' the weaning piece I'm doing - cheers, I'm on [email protected]

I feel I was lucky with my hospital - I was in and out for 3 weeks before DS was born so saw had plenty of time to work out how clean or otherwise it was.

Cleaners came every day and would always ask if you wanted your sheets changed. Bathrooms were fine - I didn't see any blood anywhere. I was given a bed bath by a midwife about 3 hours after I got onto the ward after DS was born.

Hope it's the same when I am next there (in September)

University College Hospital - London,

Cockroach walking across bathroom floor in labour ward. I started shreiking to midwife and she told me not to worry about it as they get lots of them - nice.

Had DS at the Royal Free in London, spotlessly clean delivery suite as was the rest of the accommodation. Will definitely be returning there for number 2 (if and when that happens).

had dd in the royal free (london) and have to say it was pretty grubby (although this was 3.5 years ago, prior to the major overhaul it had) had ds at barnet general and took own cleaning supplies in case but it was pretty much ok