Helping the NHS get better
June 1st 2008

Supplying the correct types of soaps and hand towels wherever they are needed is vitally important to healthcare hygiene, says Jenny Turner of Tork manufacturer SCA Tissue Europe.She talks you through the various issues involved in equipping a hospital washroom and how to tackle them

Most of us think in terms of respirators, trolleys and beds when considering the type of equipment vital to the smooth running of a hospital.

Few of us would put washroom dispensers, soaps and hand towels in this "crucial"category. But as hospital-acquired infections continue to hit the headlines, the job of keeping cross-contamination to a minimum has become a matter of national importance.

Latest figures published by the Office for National Statistics in 2008 showed a steep increase in the number of deaths caused by Clostridium Difficile, a common bacteria that becomes a problem when illness or antibiotics upset the balance of the gut.

Deaths caused by hospital "superbug" MRSA stabilised at around 1,650 during the same period, but this figure still represents a massive increase over the total of 51 recorded in 1993 when reporting began.

Hand hygiene has become a key focus in the fight against hospitalacquired infections as studies show that not all hospital staff wash and dry their hands as frequently, efficiently or as thoroughly as they should.

Supplying the right facilities in a user-friendly environment is a simple yet effective way of improving people's hand hygiene regimes.

Hospital washrooms need to cater for a wide range of people including surgeons,doctors, nursing staff,patients and visitors. Each facility needs to be adapted to reflect its individual role, but some key rules apply to all hospital washrooms.

The most important point is of course to prevent crosscontamination at all costs.There should be as few doors as possible to avoid handles and fixtures being contaminated, and hand towel dispensers should self present one towel at a time to ensure that each towel is touched only by the user.

In the washrooms on an intensive care ward, hand towels should be particularly soft so that handwashing and drying can be carried out frequently without causing discomfort.

Soaps in intensive care wards should be mild and unperfumed, and alcohol wipes should be supplied to provide an antibacterial function to complement the washing process.

Tork Premium Interfold towels are particularly suitable for such hygiene-critical healthcare washrooms.The towels are available in soft and extra soft versions and their high absorbency will dry the hands without causing chapping or soreness.They are also housed in a dispenser with a hygiene shield to ensure that each towel is touched only by the user.

Also for intensive care wards is Tork Premium liquid soap, available in mild, unperfumed and antibacterial formulas.

On general wards for staff and patients, no-touch washroom systems are still important.However, these washrooms are often busy which means a high-volume, cost-effective system is required.

Controlled dispensing,pre-measured hand towel systems such as the Tork hand towel roll are ideal here because they avoid waste and reduce costs while again ensuring that each towel is touched only by the user.

The Tork hand towel roll is available in an automatic,hands-free dispenser for optimum hygiene as well as a semi-automatic version that cuts the towel to size inside the dispenser.

In the visitor washrooms of a hospital a cost-effective, high volume system is required but hygiene still needs to be addressed.Washrooms in the A&E department are used by people who may be vomiting or perhaps bleeding from open wounds.The fact that busy doctors and nurses may sometimes use these washroom facilities themselves means the potential for cross-contamination is extremely high.

Here Tork Advanced zigzag-fold towels are particularly suitable since they provide a cost-effective, high volume solution.Again, the towels are presented one at a time to maximise hygiene.Tork Advanced zigzag towels are currently the top selling Tork towel with the NHS.

Several other sensible measures can be taken to help maximise hygiene in hospital washrooms.Dispensers should be easy to clean with no sharp corners where dirt can collect, and washrooms should be user-friendly to ensure that handwashing is a painless process.

For instance, dispensers should be installed at a comfortable height to avoid the need for any stretching or bending, and soap dispensers should be positioned either directly above the sink or slightly to the right to cater for the right-handed majority. Hand towel dispensers should be over the sink or near the exits: if there is a natural flow of washroom users from the toilet to the basin, the hand towels and then the bin, the process is seamless and more people will wash and dry their hands properly.

It is also important that soaps, hand towels and alcohol wipes never run out. Regular checks should be made on the washrooms and stickers should be placed on dispensers providing a contact number for when consumables need replacing.This prompts the washroom user to address any supply problems to an identifiable contact.

Healthcare-acquired infections are costing more than £1 billion a year in the UK alone. Since the importance of hand hygiene in hospitals is widely accepted, it makes sense to equip healthcare washrooms with the right facilities for the task in hand.

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