MRSA widow fights for cleaner hospital

Marion Ham of Amherst Road lost her 60 year old husband when he died at the Conquest three weeks after being admitted for a routine minor procedure.

The Hospital Trust so far denies that David caught MRSA at the Conquest while Marion continues to highlight the lack of hygiene standards she sees as a contributing factor.

Last week Bexhill MP Greg Barker took part in a clean-up session at the Conquest following a report that NHS Trusts in England are struggling to meet key hygiene standards.

The Healthcare Commission has been told by a quarter of hospital trusts that they are not complying with one of the three standards relating to the hygiene code, covering areas including cleanliness.

In response to Mr Barker's efforts to improve hospital hygiene, Marion told the Observer she felt the Conquest had made some effort to clean up its act but it was "far too little far too late".

She said: "My main bone-of-contention is the louvered ceilings in the corridors. They are a health hazard."

"However they have been cleaned - seven months after I first raised the issue and just before the Department of Health infection control team responsible for MRSA did their six month routine checkup.

"It seemed a bit coincidental those corridors were cleaned just before they were due to come."

Marion was told by director of cleaning David Philiskirk that the design of the ceilings was approved 15 years ago when the Conquest was built.

She said: "The corridors are considered non-clinical areas, but the louvered ceilings are a health hazard in as much as they collect dirt and dust, not to mention insects etc. Every patient, visitor, nurse, and doctor must travel these corridors. Should any germ fall onto a person, and that person goes to a ward, then the infection control becomes useless.

"It isn't rocket science."

Marion wants to see the louvred ceilings replaced even though she was told at the meeting by Kim Hodges that the disruption to the hospital while work was done would be impossible to manage and that lack of funds for cleaning was also a factor."

Her reaction to the report that Hospital Trusts in England are falling short of hygiene standards was: "Thank god - people are talking about it. It would not have been the Department of Health that made that information public, it would not have been the Government that wanted it known, and certainly the NHS guilty of it would not want it known, so therefore its people who are noticing the conditions who are going to their local newspapers and voicing their opinion.

That's people power - but the hospitals have got to listen, they have got to be accountable, they have got to stop using the umbrella of the Government and the Department of Health's guidelines...dirt is dirt. Would would not live with dirt like that in your own home so why should it be in hospital?"