According to a Canadian newspaper article published last week, some 12,000 Canadians die every year from a hospital-acquired infection and a union is demanding a province give hospitals more money for better housekeeping and more private rooms to stop the spread of superbugs.
Peterborough Examiner staff writer Elizabeth Bower reported that Sharon Richer, northern Ontario vice-president of Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, had been in Peterborough spreading the union’s message that fewer people would die from these infections if hospitals hired more housekeeping staff and those staff cleaned every hospital room as thoroughly as they would an isolation room.
“That would mean cleaning the ceiling, walls, beds and equipment as well as throwing away any exposed equipment, such as gauze, even if it’s unused.
“Thirty to 50% of the deaths are preventable just by cleaning,” Richer said at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 52, where the union had set up a mock hospital room to show how one is properly cleaned.
Hospital-acquired infections, which also include MRSA and VRE, are the fourth-leading cause of death in Canada behind heart attacks, cancer and strokes, Richer pointed out.
Up to 250,000 Canadians get a superbug every year, said Richer, who started a provincial tour for this campaign in May and is heading to Windsor, London, St. Catharines, Hamilton and Toronto this summer to spread the word.
Hospital protocols are strict enough, Richer believes, but frontline workers can’t keep up with the pace.
“There are not enough staff and not enough time for them to do a thorough job,” Richer noted.