Hospital filth

As regular readers will know, I had an op last week. I was able to observe a telling - and worrying - attitude to cleanliness in the NHS.

My op was performed at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Although there is a private wing, my procedure took place in an NHS theatre. As my wife and I waited to go through, we saw any number of nurses come out into the public area, either to go about their business or to use the toilet, which was next to the door.

There were - there are in every hospital I have been to - large signs telling everyone to clean their hands with the alcoholic solution which was in dispensers on the walls. In the thirty minutes we were waiting, however, only one nurse used any - and there was a constant stream of nurses in and out of the treatment area. Not one of the nurses who had been to the toilet bothered to use the disinfectant (and I checked - there was no other supply for the nurses).