Hospital Clean-Ups Missing Deadline

12:32pm UK, Saturday March 29, 2008

A Sky News investigation suggests the controversial 'deep clean' of hospitals up and down the country is proving less successful than the Government claims.

Deep cleans are over budget

The survey of 51 National Health Service trusts reveals a fifth have failed to meet deadlines.

The £57m programme was due to be completed by all hospitals by the end of March.

But only 37% of trusts that spoke to Sky News said they were "on track" with cleaning.

It comes as the Government announced that specialist inspection teams from the Healthcare Commission would be sent into hospitals to make sure their cleaningstandards are stringent.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said: "I am pleased to announce that 93% of Trusts will have completed their deep clean programme by or on 31 March and the rest are well on their way to completion.

"Patients demanded cleaner hospitals and the NHS has responded."

The controversial cleaning programme has been labelled a "shambles" by the Tories.

They obtained figures under the Freedom of Information Act that show only around a quarter of the money allocated by the Government has reached frontline teams.

Strategic Health Authorities can only prove that £15.6m from NHS Trust budgets has gone into deep cleaning.

Some SHAs were unable to provide figures.

Gordon Brown originally announced plans last September for every NHS hospital to be deep cleaned in an attempt to tackle bugs like MRSA and Clostridium difficile.

But the plans are over budget by at least 18% - a total of £10.6m.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: "It is appalling that Gordon Brown has broken his promise to fund this and now the local NHS has ended up footing the bill.

"What's more, there is now a weight of evidence that deep cleaning won't even make any difference.

"We need a proper strategy to root out infections through screening when people are admitted to hospital and then isolating those who are infected."