Are maternity units clean enough?

[binnymk]

A couple of weeks ago my 3 week old baby was hospitalised with severe staph aureus septicaemia,a form of impetigo. Numerous people sad it was unusual for a newborn to be infected with this illness. When I asked the drs how he contracted it they said it was just 'bad luck', but after we got out of hospital I discussed it with verious people (including health visitor)and they said it was probably picked up when he was first born, in the maternity unit. I was all set to leave the matter but I've just read about two poor little premature babies who have died in Luton Hospital of an ecoli infection and 7 others had the bug in their gut. Are maternity units clean enough? Interested to hear if anyone else has had a similar experience.

Although not very practical if you're like me and have a history of severe (and early) preeclampsia. DS was born at 31 weeks (C Section) and in that case you have no choice but to use the hospital.

He was in the neonatal ward for 5 weeks and although there were strict rules about washing hands , using gel, wearing an apron and the nurses using gel/washing hands between babies, there were still some people who did things that made me . One dad with a fullterm baby (kept in due to suspected strep b infection so getting IV antibiotics) was sitting there with his feet up on another chair (dirty boots on ). At one point I saw people come in with a delivery and they looked filthy (been on back of a van) but they didn't wash their hands. My ds ended up with an eye infection at one point which can only have been caused by someone spreading the germs from another baby, so there were sometimes lapses.

I got a womb infection, probably from the scanky bath the mw drew for me after having ds1. In the 4 days I was on the labour ward, the floor was cleaned once and the bedside tables given a cursory daily wipe. Babies bedding only changed if you did it yourself. Showers were horrific & I sent dh to get flip-flops.

Second time round, dh took antibacterial dettol to clean the bath with & antibacterial wipes were in the hospital bag, but in that time the unit had undergone a sea-change in hygiene protocol.

I'm not anal about cleaning at home, but at that hospital I felt I needed to be!

No matter what the gov says, cleaning is at the bottom of most hospitals pile.

When I started my training, lots of cleaning was done by student nurses. Damp dusting of lockers, chairs, tables etc. Now nurses do not have the time to look after patients, let alone do any cleaning.

One cleaner has to look after one ward, thats an awful lot of work for someone on a miserly wage.

The NHS needs to streamline its managers, and get more people working on the coal face.

Only my opinion of course.