Papworth Hospital given clean bill of health in unannounced inspection

PAPWORTH Hospital received a clean bill of health after an unannounced inspection by the health watchdog, the Care Quality Commission.

The inspection was looking for evidence that the hospital followed stringent guidelines on cleanliness and found that the hospital passed all 17 inspection points with flying colours.

The purpose of the spot check inspections is to ensure that the inspectors see the hospital as patients and visitors see it. The team questioned staff including clinical, administration and support staff and looked at a range of measures which included:

nEnsuring that staff involved in patients' care receive appropriate information, ntraining and supervision on how to prevent and control infections.

nEnsuring an adequate provision of suitable hand-washing facilities and anti-bacterial hand rub.

nHelping patients to be aware of how to reduce the risks of Health Care Acquired Infections (HCAIs) so that they can be vigilant (for example, by telling staff when they think there could be an issue).

nPerforming a programme of audit to ensure that policies and practices are being followed.

Ann-Marie Ingle, director of nursing at Papworth Hospital said: "We are very pleased to pass the Care Quality Commission's unannounced inspection on every single measure that was assessed. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our staff for continuing to work closely with our infection prevention and control team to protect our patients, visitors and staff from the risk of infection.''

Papworth, a leading specialist centre for heart and lung disease, treats over 20,000 inpatient and day cases and over 30,000 outpatients each year from across the UK. It carried out the UK's first successful heart transplant in 1979, followed by Europe's first successful heart and lung transplant in 1984 and the world's first heart, lung and liver transplant in 1986.