Visiting the hygiene issue


With hospitals once again open to visitors, Liam Mynes from Tork manufacturer Essity looks at ways of encouraging hospital visitors to wash their hands as COVID-19 remains in circulation.


Hospital visitors are back, but the global pandemic has dramatically changed the visiting experience – just as it has altered everything else.


While mask-wearing is no longer a requirement in the wider community, it is still being requested in hospitals. Visiting times have also been vastly restricted, sometimes to as little as an hour a day, and A&E patients are being asked not to bring companions in with them unless they are unable to manage without help and support.


There are excellent reasons for this level of caution. COVID-19 is still very much at large and visitors are a wild card in any hospital. They could easily be harbouring an infection or virus that could prove lethal to vulnerable patients.


In the days when visiting hours were more or less open- ended, the risks were potentially greater. Patients’ friends and families would stay for hours, breaking up their hospital visit with a trip to the snack bar for a coffee or sandwich. Here they would be touching utensils, cups and surfaces before heading back to the ward where they would potentially cross-contaminate the bedside environment. The longer a visitor stayed, the more likely they were to use the toilet, which would bring further cross-infection risks.


Now that visitors are spending shorter periods in hospital, they are less likely to be tempted to eat or drink during their stay. However, during the COVID-19 emergency, all visitors are being urged to wash their hands for a full 20


42 | HEALTHCARE HYGIENE


twitter.com/TomoCleaning


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98