Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The third national hygiene audit of hospitals was published today and does not make encouraging reading. The results show that not one of our public hospitals has been found to have a "very good" standard of hygiene. Seven were rated as "good", 35 were "fair" and nine were "very poor" or "poor". The results show that the standard has deteriorated since the Health Service Executive published the second audit in June 2006. That audit rated 32 hospitals as "good", 19 as "fair" and only two as "poor" compared with nine today. This confirms what most people believe, that the standards of hygiene and hygiene management programmes in our public hospitals are not what they should be. People are scared that hospital acquired infections such as MRSA and those derived from other superbugs are a real threat to patient safety in hospitals and other health care settings. We are spending €15 billion on the health care system and every member of the public understands that it is a fundamental requirement that hospitals be clean.

I accept the inspections were unannounced and that in many cases hospitals might be clean on the day of the inspection. However, the issue is that many hospitals do not have a sufficiently robust hospital management hygiene programme. That is resource and skills related. In many cases, with respect, contract cleaners, who do their best, may not have the specialist training and skill to deal with hospitals where there is a risk of spreading MRSA and other superbugs. The difference between the days of matrons running hospitals and the hospital management system that exists now is that standards of hygiene in many hospitals now are lower and this is reflected in the findings of the third report today. Can the Taoiseach honestly say that the management system in our public hospitals is ready to put forward its public hospital hygiene management programme? Can we as citizens and politicians say the programme is ready, the standards are set, the resources are in place and we will see continued improvement in what is so fundamental? Everyone who enters a hospital should be aware of how important it is to be involved in the hygiene management programme. Is there a sufficiently robust programme in every hospital as a result of this third audit?

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