21 NHS trust hospitals are failing to meet safe hygiene standards

We read in the Guardian that 21 NHS trusts have failed hygiene standards that determine whether they are safe to treat patients. Among these dirty hospitals are Barts in London, one of the oldest medical centres in Europe, Leeds teaching hospitals and Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool.

Britain's dirty hospitals have long been regarded as a national scandal and there are many people who fear ever having to go into one as a patient in case they become infected by any of the so-called superbugs. Many years ago the opposite was the case, and our hospitals were very clean indeed. I personally think that as well as exhorting staff, patients and patients' visitors to wash their hands more and to use the antiseptic hand-gels, that setting limits on hours of hospital visiting would help a lot, and being stricter about the number of visitors at a time per patient.