by Ruth Banks

A covert hygiene inspection of how often staff and visitors use hand cleaner dispensers at Kent’s hospitals has found "worryingly" low levels of compliance.

Only one in six staff at the Darent Valley hospital in Dartford, and one in four at the Kent and Canterbury hospital, cleaned their hands with sanitiser gel at the entrance to wards.

Compliance levels for visitors were as low as 13 per cent at Maidstone hospital, and 21 per cent at Kent and Canterbury.

The survey was carried out by volunteers from the Kent and Medway LINks, independent watchdog groups that monitor standards in hospitals across Kent.

Project leader and report author, John Fletcher said: "There do appear to be groups of people who consider the dispensers are there for others and not them, including delivery people, porters and to a large extent, the public.

"Making unobtrusive observations is not easy. The hospital 'grapevine' works very quickly and staff, in particular, soon know when measurements are being made. Bearing this is mind, it is likely the figures we report may be inflated above the norm for this reason."

But the report has been branded misleading by East Kent Hospitals University Trust chief executive, Stuart Bain, who says 'public confidence should not be undermined by raising inappropriate concerns about our infection control practice and hospital hygiene'.

He says infection control experts agree that visitors have 'little or no role' to play in the spread of hospital infection, which is clearly stated in several guidance documents.

He adds: "It is most beneficial to patient safety to place hand rub dispensers at the point of care. Placement at other sites is at the discretion of local trusts/organisations, and should be based on an assessment of risk."

All of the NHS trusts involved say their staff focus on hand hygiene at the point of care, by the patient’s bedside, rather than at the entrance to the ward. There has also been a significant reduction in MRSA and Clostridium difficile infection rates across the region.