Hospital spending £230,000 on MRSA deep cleaning

AN extra £230,000 is being spent by Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, to carry out a deep clean of all its clinical areas in the next few months.
Sixteen specially-recruited and trained cleaning staff will be involved in the deep cleaning programme.
The hit team will clean patient and public areas, store rooms, kitchens, sluices, corridors, and stairwells.
They will also de-clutter wards, remove old equipment, and clean storage areas on wards.
Head of facilities Simon Rigby said: “This additional investment has been provided by NHS South West as part of a national scheme announced by Gordon Brown recently.
“Our performance on healthcare associated infections at Musgrove Park is already very good, with rates of MRSA and CDiff more than halving in the last 12 months, but this extra money will allow us to do even more.
“There will inevitably be some disruption, but we are doing all we can to minimise any inconvenience to patients by carrying out the deep clean bay by bay, and doing a lot of the work in the evenings.”

• Our photograph shows some members of the deep cleaning team (left to right) team leader Debbie Whiting, with Karl Hernan, Simon Blewett, Jamie Shirley, and Mark Farrow. Members of the team not available for the photocall were Alex Brown, Lou Walker, team leader Kevin Elliot, Anibal Da Silva, and Chris Farrand. Photo submitted.