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Professor John Robertson OBA
Headlining on BBC Scotland today, the above tragic case and:
Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the death of a young woman seven years after she became seriously ill with a hospital-acquired infection in Glasgow.
Molly Cuddihy, 23, died in the high dependency unit of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in the city on Tuesday.
In 2018 Molly developed septic shock while receiving cancer treatment at the same hospital campus, which is now at the centre of a public inquiry into safety issues.
Not anywhere in the quite long report, important context which even student journalists are taught to include.
How under Scottish Labour, hospitals were ‘death traps’ of hospital acquired infections and how Nicola Sturgeon sorted it
The prevalence of HAI was 4.9%, 2.5%, 6.1% and 1.2% in acute, non-acute, paediatric and independent hospitals respectively [in Scotland in 2006]. https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(12)00277-0/abstractThe most recent comprehensive data on hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) in Scotland comes from a 2021 study led by Glasgow Caledonian University, commissioned by the Scottish Government. This study, published in the Journal of Hospital Infection, found that approximately 1% of hospital patients in Scotland develop HAIs annually, equating to about 7,500 patients each year. This incidence rate is notably lower than previous UK estimates (7.8%) and recent European figures (3%). https://www.scotpho.org.uk/health-conditions/infections/data/healthcare-associated-infections/
So, hospital acquired infections under the SNP are between a fifth and a half of the level in 2006, under Labour, an eighth of the level in England and a third of the level in Europe.
Why, so good?
In Scotland, the decision was taken in 2008, against the background of major problems in British hospitals with infections resistant to treatment. The Scottish ministry of health [Health Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon] banned any further contracting-out of these services, so that when existing contracts expire all work returns and remains in-house. It also financed the employment of 600 extra cleaners to raise standards of cleanliness.https://www.epsu.org/article/uk-hospital-cleaning-brought-house-scotland-wales-n-ireland
New research shows that NHS hospitals that employ private cleaners are associated with a higher incidence of MRSA, a ‘superbug’ that causes life-threatening infection and has previously been linked with a lack of cleanliness…on average, the incidence of MRSA infection between 2005 and 2009 was 2.28 in every 100,000 bed days in trusts that outsourced their cleaning, compared with 1.46 bed days in trusts that used in-house cleaners –.a difference of almost 50 per cent.
The research was conducted by the University of Oxford, with the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2016-12-21-nhs-hospitals-outsource-cleaning-%E2%80%98linked-higher-rates-mrsa%E2%80%99johnrobertson834health, history, news, nhs, politicsEdit
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
This is the AI comparison.
https://bsky.app/profile/bonullbraes.bsky.social/post/3lxgzryqlbs2g
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My brother died of sepsis in hospital in 2008. He had been in hospital twice before on the early 2000s and contracted MRSA both times. My neighbour’s brother died in hospital of MRSA around the same time. Another neighbour’s brother was in isolation with MRSA. A former colleague I met was walking with a walking stick. She had just been in hospital and contracted MRSA. Another acquaintance had also been in hospital and contracted MRSA and was left with chronic illness.
I could go on…
All this was within a five year period in a relatively small community.
When the Thatcher government introduced contracting out of cleaning services in schools and hospitals the mountain of paperwork was incredible. Previously, janitors supervised the cleaners and if an emergency occurred it was dealt with immediately. But after privatisation if a mess occurred the area supervisor, who could be anywhere in a region, had to be notified and an extra cleaning session organised. This could take hours, or even days. e.g. real instances – a child vomiting in a classroom or afterbirth left in a hospital ward toilet.
Nicola Sturgeon deserves a medal for bringing cleaning back in-house. She will have saved many lives through this one act of common sense.
The BBC deserves to be outsourced to a real public service broadcaster.
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Labour when at Holyrood outsourced SNHS cleaning services to private companies, and quite frankly the cleaners did not know how to clean a hoospital environment and their employers would not have cared a jot. I had a friend worked in SNHS who was always getting C-Diff so having to take time off work back them…so all that would have cost the NHS in £’s as well as staff and pateinet safety. Labour, HQ’d in England, must NEVER be allowed back in power at Holyrood the damage they cause to Scotland is unimaginable.
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Me thinks it would be fair to say that the vast majority believe that the UK news is London centric but as a Fifer Scottish news is now very much Glasgow centric to the extent if it is an issue in our biggest city then it MUST be of concern to all Scots. Not so.
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