Hospital Cleanliness

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30768, 4 June 1965, Page 2

Hospital Cleanliness

(Special Crspdt. N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, June 3. Too much reliance is placed on modern drugs instead of century-old principles of cleanliness, says Dr. Bryan Williams, a senior obstetrician and gynaecologist, in the latest issue of “The Practitioner,” which deals largely with care before and after childbirth. He warns that mankind may be entering “an era of grave infection,” and draws lessons from “those two great giants of the Victorian age” —Florence Nightingale and the surgeon, Mr Lawson Tait. Dr. Williams asks: “How can it be possible for any unit in the present day with a high bed-occupancy rate or

a rapid turnover, to satisfy the principles of good hospital housekeeping which Florence Nightingale laid down so well and forcibly 100 years ago?" How is it possible to carry out the emptying, airing and spring cleaning of wards, which should be a regular procedure, and not just a “panic closing of the stable door measure when an outbreak of sepsis has occurred?” he asks.

For some time it has been taught “too lightly and almost irresponsibly” that the age of infection is past, says Dr. Williams. He cites recent outbreaks and says: “Microorganisms can readily change their virulence for the human race, and such a change may find us with weapons that are blunt and rusty and with a generation of nurses and doctors not trained to meet the change.”