Quarter of NHS trusts fail standards on infection and hygiene

Quarter of NHS trusts fail standards on infection and hygiene, report from watchdog finds

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Wednesday, 17, Mar 2010 11:48

A quarter of the NHS trusts in England are failing to meet standards in relation to hospital infections and hygiene standards, a report has found.

The health service watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said some hospitals were warned about blood-spattered walls and mouldy surgical equipment.

The Guardian was told a quarter of health trusts failed to meet standards, according to the CQC, while another report released by the watchdog said four of the 11 ambulance services had breached their NHS contracts.

Of the 167 NHS trusts inspected, 42 were found by the commission to be in "breach" of NHS registration requirements by not meeting standards. Basildon and Thurock University hospitals, for example, were criticised for poor hygiene and investigators found blood spatters and a soiled commode.

Five health trusts were issued with warnings about serious breaches in hospital infection control by the health regulator last year.

Of the ambulance services around the country, those in the north-west, east of England and east Midlands were the worst offenders and received formal warnings for the state of vehicles and stations.

The CQC said: "When we inspected these [ambulance] trusts we assessed 17 or more aspects of infection control and found they were fully meeting between 12 and 17.

"However, the inspections also revealed that all but one ambulance trust could strengthen its practices for infection control. Most significantly, we judged that four ambulance trusts were breaching the regulation."