Bug-busters fighting back
IF there's something strange in your hospital ward, who are you going to call? Bug-busters!
And at Lynn's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which has again been tackling the dreaded winter vomiting bug, that means the small but effective infection prevention and control team.
Leading infection prevention and control specialist nurse Lynne Roberts, fellow specialist nurse Elspeth Hardy and practitioner Helen Senior are out to rid the hospital of all bugs.
The dedicated trio work alongside the hospital's microbiology department, and act as the frontline team providing a link between the microbiologists and the patients on the ward.
As nursing staff, they are the only ones who can advise closure of wards for infection control reasons.
"The trust board and senior management have to work with us – our advice never gets overruled," Miss Roberts pointed out.
"Our strategic health authority visited us this year and we had good reports from them.
BEST PRACTICE
"They said infection control rules in the QEH.
"We have been held up as an example of best practice and one of the best performing hospitals in the country for the reduction of MRSA and bacteraemia (a bloodstream infection)."
Miss Roberts said: "We are here to prevent, control and reduce infection within the hospital environment, but we cover every aspect of the hospital not just patient care.
"We work with a team covering everyone from doctors to domestics, porters to admin staff and caterers to the trust board."
She said the team's work involved three roles.
The first was acting as facilitators, providing the advice and training to allow staff to do their jobs and prevent and control infection.
The second role was a surveillance one, keeping a check on any organisms that can cause infections like MRSA, Clostridium difficile, norovirus, TB and many others, by daily identifying current levels and trends.
Miss Roberts said: "We provide feedback and advice to relevant people, whether they are doctors, nurses or patients themselves."
The third role was one of auditing and risk assessment.
This involved working with lead nurses, ward and department managers and practice development nurses to assess risks and audit practices, policies, the environment and other infection control issues.
The team puts together action plans to address issues that arise and is geared up to cope with "whatever comes through the doors" on a daily basis. "We all carry a bleep and we don't know what happens until that goes off," she said.
During the current norovirus crisis, the team has been closing bays on wards for observation where patients have been suffering from symptoms like unexplained diarrhoea and closing wards to new patients where the winter vomiting bug has been confirmed.
Mrs Hardy said that in such circumstances, movement restrictions are applied and no patients can be discharged to residential homes or areas where they could be mixing with vulnerable people.
The infection can be spread through the air and on people's hands.OUTBREAk
"We implement special precautions to reduce the risk of cross-infection and we restrict visitors," she said.
Miss Roberts said: "When we have an outbreak, we have meetings with relevant people throughout the trust, from managers downwards, so we can manage the activities of the hospital as best we can."
Norovirus has been an unwelcome visitor to the Lynn hospital from November to about March in recent years, but it was later arriving this time than in many hospitals in the region thanks to the team's vigilance and work.
Last year, GP patient records showed that three million people in the UK were affected with the bug over Christmas – and the actual figure would have been higher still because many others did not report it to their doctor.
The team said the best way to counter such infections was to use good personal hygiene, such as regular hand washing, keeping clothes clean and avoiding areas where lots of other people are if you have had illness within the past 72 hours.
Miss Roberts said they have to be ready for the unexpected in the job. For instance, about two years ago she ventured onto a building site, wearing a hard hat and high visibility jacket, after a fault in the heating system on a ward led to it continually pumping out warm air.
Because of building work taking place outside, windows were sealed on the ward and everyone was sweltering so she had to ask the builders when they would be finishing so the windows could be opened.
And later the same day, she was on the roof of the hospital with the estate managers looking at a boiler system and discussing the risks of Legionnaire's disease.
The team said visitors can help reduce the risk of infections when they visit patients by not having too many round the bed at any one time, not sitting on the bed and, most importantly, using the hand sanitizers provided on wards.
personal hygiene
Infection-avoiding measures used in hospital that people can do in their own homes include not using the same towels, maintaining personal hygiene, reducing dust and keeping a clean environment, bathing regularly and using clean bedding.
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Weather for King's Lynn
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: East
