Too many hands still unwashed at Mater Dei

Overall hand hygiene has barely improved with the migration to Mater Dei Hospital, despite better hand-washing facilities and the availability of alcohol rubs.

"We were expecting a massive change, but we saw no major improvements although we moved to a spanking new hospital," National Antibiotic Committee head Michael Borg said.

Although the new hospital is well equipped with wash basins and alcohol rubs, medics were still not using them enough, with hand hygiene taking place only 30 per cent of the time, just slightly higher than the compliance rate at St Luke's Hospital.

Speaking during a conference on infection control and antibiotic therapy, marking the first European Antibiotic Awareness Day, Dr Borg explained that the substantial overcrowding at St Luke's Hospital had been considered a major contributor to the spread of infections.

But while overcrowding had decreased in the new hospital, levels of the superbug, MRSA, had remained high.

Asked why the anticipated change had not taken place, Dr Borg said it was people's attitudes which counted, not basins and alcohol rubs.

"If someone worked for many years at St Luke's Hospital, where hand-washing facilities were lacking and hand hygiene was a problem, one's attitude is not going to change overnight," he said.

A year ago, just before the move to the new hospital, Dr Borg had voiced his expectations of a substantial improvement in the rate of infection, saying he would be very disappointed if this did not materialise.

Last month, the health authorities embarked on a campaign to remind hospital staff of the importance of washing their hands before touching patients in a bid to curb the spread of infections. They also urged patients not to be afraid of asking medics whether their hands were clean.

"We hope this campaign will bring about a turnaround," Dr Borg said.

The main concern is that lack of hand hygiene increases cross-infection, pushing up recovery time and costs, not to mention the risk of death. Figures show that some 10 per cent of patients in hospitals around the world will get a hospital-acquired infection; one per cent will die from the infection, while another two per cent will die from a related complication.

Dr Borg also pointed out that MRSA was no longer solely a hospital problem but was also present in the community, especially in tight-knit populations like Malta.

This made it all the more important to address the misuse of antibiotics, which was increasing the resistance of microbes.

A recent paper showed that Malta has the third highest rate of antibiotic prescriptions among 19 European countries, with more than five per cent of Maltese who feel the beginning of a sore throat self-prescribing antibiotics without consulting a doctor.

Overprescribing is also prevalent among doctors, who are sometimes pressured by patients to give them the drugs. Antibiotics, considered a miracle cure in the past, risks becoming ineffective.

"There is no doubt that all of us need to revaluate our prescription methods," he said.