Hospital Acquired Covid spread through EKHUFT Hospitals because of unclean fomites Trust secretary implies
Not to long ago we asked the question – Is this the stupiest person in England?
We stated in our honest opinion, Ms Alison Fox (pictured), who is presently Trust Secretary for East Kent Hospital University Foundation Trust [EKHUFT] was the stupidiest person in England.
Do you know what a fomite is?
No!
A fomite refers to inanimate objects that can carry and spread disease and infectious agents. So such things as clothes, utensils, computer keyboards, lightswitches, mobile phones, microwaves, doorhandles, stephoscopes, and furniture for example.
In a response to an Environmental Information Request about Hospital Acquired Covid, in Feb 2021, Ms Alison Fox, who is presently Trust Secretary for EKHUFT stated:
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“The Trust takes the view that your request does not fall within the ambit of Regulation 2 of The Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and makes the distinction that the transmission of the virus [Covid] is primarily from person to person/fomites and is not intrinsically mediated by, or reliant on, any of the elements referred to in Regulation 2.”
In the old days (80s) everything was cleaned by the wards or the departments own cleaners. Everything! Nothing like going backwards is there? Why are people in positions of authority so thick, it beggars belief!
I must declare an interest before commenting that I joined the NHS when it was one year old and worked in related establishments such a medical school and the medical research council.
Joining the South-East Metropolitan Hospital Board in 1973 as the newly created Regional Scientific Officer I found myself in the middle of the first of many attempts to ‘improve’ the service. Originally the Tory government led by Heath had intended to abolish Regional Committees and deal directly with District committees which would be coterminous with local government districts. Since this would mean 92, they decided to not only back track but created another layer, the Area Health Authority which was coterminous with counties. This was supposed to create a degree of integration between Social and health care. Now 48 years on, numerous reorganizations later, I suspect we will face the Hancock reorganization.
The real problem illustrated by the Stupidity at the local trust is that successive Tory governments including New Labour thought that hospitals could be made more efficient by being run by people with experience at a senior level in business. Unfortunately, public hospitals cannot be run like businesses for several reasons.
You cannot control the workload, witness Covid.
The staff structure is not pyramidal but a series of parallel with cross reporting both between and upwards.
Senior staff need to be out and about not sitting in their offices waiting for problems to be brought to them. Nor should they be attempting to answer questions they clearly do not understand. The more inexcusable when a short walk to consult senior staff with the relevant knowledge. Even at region we spent a lot of time meeting staff in hospitals and knew what their problems were.
I agree with JM, outsourcing cleaning has been a disaster.
The time taken to set up testing in the early days of Covid could I am sure been ameliorated at least if Regional Authorities still existed. In all probability a senior scientist would have had a fair idea where PCR machines not only within the service but also in local universities might be available.