A commentary from yesterday's Nanaimo Daily News on superbug outbreaks at the local hospital:
Following C. Difficile and other hospital infection problems, the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA) ditched its five year contract with Compass for housekeeping services.
Unfortunately, there are few signs that such lessons are being take seriously in Ontario, where Compass is expanding its hospital business.
dallan@cupe.ca
What VIHA (the local health authority) had to learn was this: to put the proper resources into cleaning and infection control rather than public relations. What we know from the last outbreak was that poorly paid and poorly trained cleaning staff were not doing a good enough job. The Daily News revealed continued understaffing, low pay, and poor training of cleaning staff by the private contractor hired to replace government workers after Bill 29 was introduced in 2002. While that was bad enough, VIHA was trying to hide those facts and that these problems among cleaning staff led in part to the last C. diff. outbreak.
Following C. Difficile and other hospital infection problems, the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA) ditched its five year contract with Compass for housekeeping services.
Unfortunately, there are few signs that such lessons are being take seriously in Ontario, where Compass is expanding its hospital business.
dallan@cupe.ca
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