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You may have heard the news story this week that the number of deaths in hospitals as a result of Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) increased by 28% between 2006 and 2007. The good news that accompanied this was that the number of deaths from MRSA fell slightly over the same period, but that does not mask the fact that a 28% rise in C. difficile deaths would appear to be cause for grave concern.
One explanation may be that C. difficile was reported more accurately in 2007 than in 2006. It seems that the disease was often recorded as a contributing factor on death certificates. This is borne out by the fact that there has actually been a reduction in the overall number of C, difficile cases (whether death resulted or not).
We take a keen interest in all matters that affect the wellbeing of hospital patients, mainly because we run A Friend in Need, a website sending gifts to people in hospital on behalf of friends and family who can’t visit the patient in person.
Let us hope that better recording is indeed the reason behind this worrying statistic, rather than a higher incidence of the disease itself.
We were interested to read this week that under new Government proposals hospitals that break hygiene rules could be fined – by up to £50,000. The hope appears to be however that fining would be the very last resort, and that in most cases the NHS Trust involved would be able to work with the Care Quality Commission to resolve the problems. (The Care Quality Commission is a new watchdog that will replace the existing Healthcare Commission in 2009.)
The fact is that rates of Clostridium difficile and MRSA have already dropped significantly – by something like a third in the past year – but it is important to make sure this level of improvement is sustained.
We take a keen interest in all matters that affect the wellbeing of hospital patients. This stems from the fact that we run A Friend in Need, a website sending gifts to people in hospital on behalf of friends and family who can’t visit the patient in person.
Let us hope therefore that the proposed fines never need to be applied.
It’s been a hot, sticky week with high temperatures and uncomfortably high levels of humidity. Clammy, muggy, oppressive, sultry . . . the adjectives are almost endless. It has definitely not been the best time to be in hospital.
We have felt for those hospital patients to whom we have been sending presents over the past few days. We run a website sending gifts to people in hospital on behalf of friends and family who can’t visit the patient in person. We try to make sure the range of gifts on the site is fairly extensive – cuddly toys, puzzles, silk flower arrangements, for example – but what we can’t unfortunately do is devise a present that makes the Summer any less muggy.
Probably the best we can offer is toiletries to help overcome the effects!
This week we need to order some more cuddly toys from our wholesaler as our stock has dwindled. We run a website sending gifts to people in hospital on behalf of friends and family who can’t visit the patient in person, and – as you might imagine – cuddly toys are always among the most popular gifts that people buy from us online.
The trouble is our wholesaler has so much variety it’s difficult to choose which particular toys we should stock. Not lust teddy bears, but dogs, cats, giraffes, elephants, monkeys – even frogs. And all in the most astonishing range of colours.
It’s going to take some thinking about, though as usual I suspect we’re probably going to major on the old favourite, teddy bears. Still, if anyone has any views on what type of cuddly toys a hospital patient is likely to get the most comfort from, we’d be delighted to hear from you.
We run a retail website – sending gifts to people in hospital on behalf of friends and family who can’t visit the patient in person – and we despatch the gifts by recorded delivery. This is a good service: our experience is that the overwhelming majority of goods are delivered on the next working day after we post them. Over bank holidays there is of course a slight delay, and we explain on the website that, if you order a gift just before or during a bank holiday weekend, you need to allow an extra day’s delivery time.
We have of course just enjoyed the late May bank holiday. If you live in the southern part of the country, it was very clearly a bank holiday – it poured with rain all day! So, with little else to do with our time, we decided to deliver by hand one of the recently ordered gifts. It was for someone in a hospital reasonably close to us.
It was a rewarding experience. Dodging the showers, we made our way to the hospital, handed the parcel over at reception and were assured it would be delivered to the patient immediately. If only we had more time, we might do that more often!
We have just returned from a short break in Italy. We stayed in Amalfi, which as you may know is a small town perched on steep cliffs tumbling down to the sea. It is a beautiful, idyllic spot.
The roads in and out of town are another matter, however. Narrow and twisting, they wind round the cliffs hugging the coastline. Only a low wall separates the traffic from a sharp plunge down into the sea. And needless to say, the locals, who obviously know the road well, are not the most patient of drivers.
We began to wonder how many accidents occur and wondered how far away the nearest hospital was. We weren’t just being morbid – we have a kind of interest in these things because at AFriendinNeed.co.uk we send gifts to people in hospital on behalf of friends and family who cannot to visit them in person. We wondered how our business might fare in Amalfi.
To our relief, although a lot of vehicles have long scratches down the side, there was little evidence of frequent accidents. We think we’ll carry on limiting the website to the UK!
We were interested to hear this week that some NHS bosses and doctors are calling for police to be deployed in hospital A&E units on Friday and Saturday nights. The plan is to help curb problems with binge drinkers, who apparently account for 70% of all admissions after midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
Security in hospitals generally has become more of an issue in recent years – as indeed has security in most premises. It remains possible however for almost anyone to gain access to most hospital wards. Although the rate of crime remains thankfully low, a hospital ward is certainly not a place where patients would be advised to leave their valuables.
Having something with you that is personal is still important for most hospital patients, however. We get to know all about this because of the website we run: we send gifts to people in hospital on behalf of friends and family who cannot to visit them in person.
It’s interesting to see the kind of gifts that friends and family choose from the website. Cuddly toys and silk flower arrangements are always popular – the kind of thing that is not valuable, and therefore not at risk in a hospital ward, but still feels very personal to the patient.
If by chance you read this blog regularly, or if you’ve visited the website recently, you may remember we launched our “presents for nurses” idea at the beginning of the year.
At AFriendinNeed.co.uk we send gifts to people in hospital on behalf of friends and family who cannot to visit them in person. But it struck us that there is something else a hospital patient may often want as much as a present for themselves. And that’s to be able to give a small gift to the nurses and other staff who take so much trouble to look after them.
So we added an option to the website that allows the patient’s friend or relative to include a small additional gift that the patient can then pass on to their carers.
It took a while for the idea to catch on, but gradually more people are ordering presents for nurses. It will be interesting to see how popular it becomes.
Visiting a friend in hospital last week I was reminded just how noisy hospital wards can be. My friend told me how difficult getting to sleep at night can be. It’s not necessarily that the hospital staff or other patients make a lot of noise. The electronic equipment that has become vital to patients’ survival creates its own rather alien sounds which of course continue throughout the day and night.
We have become attuned to the particular needs of hospital patients because via our website we send gifts to people in hospital on behalf of friends and family who cannot to visit them in person. So it’s important that we offer a range of gifts that reflects what patients really want.
One of the gifts in our AFriendinNeed range is a “hospital survival kit”, which includes some ear plugs. At first we included them mainly as a joke. But visiting someone in a noisy ward has reminded us how vital ear plugs can be for a patient who wants an undisturbed night’s sleep.
According to recent research, patients in hospital should not use their mobile phones. Scientists in Holland have concluded that mobile phones should come no closer than one metre to a hospital bed or the equipment that is used by the bed. The reason is that interference from second and third generation mobile phones can damage equipment like external pacemakers, syringe pumps and mechanical ventilators.
The solution for hospital patients, it seems, is to rely on the land line – which as we know may not be very convenient.
We have an interest in what patients can have with them in hospital. At AFriendinNeed.co.uk we send gifts to people in hospital on behalf of friends and family who cannot to visit them in person. We offer a range of gifts on the website, but I’m glad to say we’ve never contemplated selling mobile phones!
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