Yet another study has just appeared in AJIC ‘In Press’ that reports on a long-term, discontinuous ‘outbreak’ of Pseudomonas (see http://www.ajicjournal.org/article/S0196-6553%2815%2900138-8/abstract). Once again everything points back to the sinks in the unit and a reusable washbasin for hairwashing. So all back to water and practice issues around it. Water is dangerous you know, nearly 100% of murderers and theives have consumed it in the 24 hrs preceding their crimes and it is the leading cause of drowning. Seriously though, wouldn’t we expect to find Pseudomonas in a sink trap? It is how it gets to the patient that is the issue. I was in a hospital overseas recently where mop-heads were conveniently placed either side of the sink to soak up splashes from the basin. So, why were there splashes? The sink trap was just a hole and so the staff had placed big grilles over the bottom of the sink to prevent items going down and blocking the sink. Turning on the tap produced a very attractive set of fountains, a bit like at the end of ‘Oceans 11’. Nuff said
