More than 50% of British people visiting hospitals do not understand how to clean their hands properly, according to a recent YouGov poll.
The poll, commissioned by TEAL Patents, has found 85% of British people would wash their hands upon entering a hospital. Fifty three per cent of people say they’d prefer to use hand gels to do this than use soap and water, a finding which may suggest that many people are under the misapprehension that hand gels clean hands thoroughly.
The survey found that when visiting a hospital, over half of people (53%) surveyed would use hand gel to clean their hands, rather than washing their hands with soap and water. However, many people fail to understand that hand rubs only act as a barrier on top of hands, rather than removing the risk of illness and infection altogether. Norovirus – which can shut down whole hospital wards – is just one infection that cannot be stopped by hand sanitisers.
Another statistic to come out of the survey is that almost 30% of people wouldn’t always wash their hands when visiting a hospital. This not only causes unnecessary risk to staff and other visitors but, most importantly, to vulnerable patients.
Manty Stanley, managing director of TEAL Patents – a leading manufacturer of portable hand washing units, says: “The results are disappointing because they clearly suggest a lack of understanding and education about hand hygiene best practice which needs to be addressed especially as wards are seeing more virulent infections due to antibiotic-resistant infections.
“Hand gels only kill some germs and our hands have the power to kill when they incubate deadly strains of contagious diseases.
“It’s little wonder that UK hospitals are a hotbed of germs if people choose not to wash their hands correctly before entering a hospital. Washing hands with soap under hot, running water is, in worldwide, medical opinion, the gold standard in infection control.
“We also need to educate hospital estate managers on the need to provide a hot water, hand wash with soap facilities, wherever and whenever it may be required, even when there is no immediate access to mains water and drainage.”
