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Cleaners at an NHS hospital have been told to turn over dirty bed sheets rather than use clean linen. Good Hope Hospital in Birmingham advised its staff to “top and tail” used sheets to cut the £500,000 annual laundry bill.
Posters instructing staff that this procedure would save 0.275 pence for every sheet re-used were pinned on cupboards and doors leading to the A&E and maternity departments. A health worker said that new patients were being given the same sheets as the previous occupant.
A hospital spokesman denied the practice. He said the posters had been issued three years ago but had since been removed. John Baron, Tory shadow health minister, described it as a concern given that MRSA was such a problem in hospitals. Good Hope recorded 36 cases from April last year to January.
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I cannot beleive it!! I think this is a disgusting practice and just asking for MORE trouble than already exists. We can't trust even "The Trust "these days.
Maureen, Whitley Bay, UK
Is surprising to note the comment from a hospital spokesman which says "such poster had been issued 3 yrs ago". Surely, it ought not to have been issued at all!!! Surely the individual who thought up and the CEO who approved of the idea ought to be SACKED!!! Is there a deficit issue facing NHS, yes, and saving ought to be made were possible, but it has to be sensible without having placed patient safety at risk. I can one way is to reduce the red tapes and reduced unnecessary middle-managers.
D-S Chy, London, UK
And this Government wonders why MRSA is rising? Perhaps they should scrap the ridiculous NHS IT Project and spend the money on hygiene. Or is that too simple a solution?
Stephanie, London, England
Either this story is true or it isn't. You are supposed to be journalists - find out!
If it is true, and nothing would surprise me about UK life anymore, EEEEUUUUW!
Steve Grimley Evans, Kowloon, Hong Kong