Infection Control in the Maelor Hospital
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Should we be surprised that Tameside Hospital has hit the headlines in England as the first hospital to have patients with “hospital acquired Covid”. Maybe they should contact the Maelor Hospital to get some tips on how to overcome the problem. Would be interesting to find out if there is any common factors in both ourbreaks. If there are then maybe some preventative measures could be placed in other hospitals to stop it being a common occurrence in all hospitals !
“There have been 58 members of staff who work at Wrexham Maelor Hospital who have tested positive for COVID-19 since 6th July. This includes staff who have experienced symptoms and staff who had not. It also includes staff who have not been in work in the period before the positive test and are not associated with the current outbreak.”
Hopefully the hospital now have a policy of regular staff testing to protect both staff and patients. Especially as testing has identified staff with covid but no symptoms. Everyone is relieved the outbreak in the hospital has been brought under control, it must not happen again!
The statement was quite selective in giving historical information on testing but nothing about what happens now.
Mark Drakford said “If there were to be a further outbreak, and it was necessary to test staff, then of course, that is what we would expect to happen.”
Surly the problem with the Maelor Hospital outbreak before was the lack of testing once the cases started to increase they cannot wait until the number of cases get classified as an outbreak again.
Testing needs to be frequent and instant for those showing symptom and their immediate colleaguesIf this report is correct, the UK government are getting in the way of testing in Wales and this would have worrying implications for a second wave here:
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/rct-rhondda-testing-coronavirus-tests-18922687
I gather that school children are being sent home fromschool when they have a normal cough & cold. They are then not allowed back at school until they have a negative test. Bound to clog up the system. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54145299
I think there are a few points missing here.
1. The Welsh Government had months to sort out testing but realised the capacity needed could not be met so they signed up for the Lighthouse Contract run by Serco, KPMG and other private companies.
2. Failings in the Lighthouse system were known at least 6/8 weeks ago yet the contract will cost the Welsh Government millions to withdraw.
3. There are probably no failings in the delivery of the contract so the contractors cannot be held to account – the issue is that Welsh Government and the other nations did not order sufficient capacity. This is a failing that all 4 Governments need to share. They should have looked at what was happening in other countries that are ahead of UK on the Covid curve and seen the projected numbers and required testing.
4. Wales does have capacity in a number of hospital and Wales Health Service but the logistics of running 2 or even 3 systems run significant risks.Surprised there are no Touch-free auto dispensers of sanitiser at the entrance to the Maelor Hospital , bottles on a couple of tables , you have to pick up and squeeze are not the best! Hand sanitation is a basic but effective way of controlling the spread of Covid , money on a couple of touch free auto dispensers would be money well spent.
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