New government guidelines?

[suey]

I cannot work out how to quote 2 people in the one reply. We were discussing this the other day.  We concluded that insufficient thought was given to infection control when new hospitals were designed.  We have had several hospitals demolished and new ones built in our area over the past 10 years.  One consisted of individual pavilions each with a separate, enclosed courtyard each so patients could get fresh air without having to mix with patients from other pavilions.  It would have been ideal in the current situation especially as the entrances were laid out in such a way it would have been easy to set up divided donning and doffing stations for staff PPE should it have been necessary.

The other was a bit more ridiculous.  In another hospital the infectious diseases unit had a separate red entrance with it's own ambulance bay to be used if a patient had suspected SARS, Ebola, Marburgs or similar.  They built the new hospital and not only did they not give the infectious diseases unit a separate entrance they placed it a few floors up with shared lifts and lengthy shared corridors to access..  Only when the staff entered lengthy written complaints (after trying to tell them several times) after the new hospital was completed were protocols drawn up to be able to isolate, disinfect, and reopen corridors should the need arise.  The ventilation also had to be redone as it was initially shared with other wards.

Couldn’t make it up could you .  Why is it that the men in suits know better than those who actually have to make things work.

Glad to see you back btw....

[Crumblie]

The new hospitals were probably built under PFI (Private Finance Initiative) which on the face of it seems a good idea but in practise costs far more in the long run than schools, hospitals etc built in the usual way.

[pharmaT]

The new hospitals were probably built under PFI (Private Finance Initiative) which on the face of it seems a good idea but in practise costs far more in the long run than schools, hospitals etc built in the usual way.

The new system is certainly more time consuming and expensive but the staff didn't have much choice.