Just one in 10 doctors and nurses at Mater Dei Hospital wash their hands before treating or examining patients - exposing poor hand hygiene that increases the spread of potentially deadly infections.
With 91 per cent failing to wash their hands, hygiene habits have barely improved since the migration from St Luke's Hospital to Mater Dei where wash-hand basins and alcohol rub stations increased six-fold to 30 in each ward.
The figures are quite disheartening for Michael Borg, chairman of the Infection Control Committee which carried out the 2008 Epidemiological Report seen by The Sunday Times, issued recently to mark European Antibiotic Awareness Day.
Dr Borg said it was essential for healthcare workers to wash their hands before and after touching a patient - especially when inserting a catheter or regulating the intravenous drip; after touching the environment in the hospital ward, such as beds and equipment; and after handling body fluids.
However, just 16 per cent of doctors follow these guidelines. Nurses fare a little better, but just under a quarter (23.5 per cent) comply with hand hygiene requirements.
Doctors and nurses are not overly concerned about their own health it seems, with just 22.7 per cent cleansing their hands after coming into contact with body fluids.
Dr Borg had anticipated better infection control compliance once the hospital migrated to a new building. However, he said improved facilities on their own were not enough - the staff's mentality had to make the same shift forward.
A hand hygiene campaign to tackle this problem kicked off last year, but attitudes took a long time to change. In the meantime, Dr Borg encouraged patients to be vigilant and remind healthcare workers to wash their hands or use alcohol rub.
Poor hand hygiene leads to the cross-transmission of resilient infections, such as the antibiotic-resistant superbug MRSA that lurks in most hospitals, leading to complications and even death.
MRSA is a type of bacteria commonly found on the skin and in the noses of healthy people. Although it is usually harmless, it may occasionally get into the body through breaks in the skin such as abrasions, cuts, wounds, surgical incisions or catheters, and cause infection.
Hospital patients, as a result of their sometimes weakened immune systems and intravenous lines, are particularly vulnerable to these resistant strains. This makes hand hygiene even more important.
Migrating to a new hospital did little to eliminate or reduce the presence of the lurking superbug - Mater Dei has an average of 25 MRSA cases a month, registering a small improvement over St Luke's monthly average of 28. However, the island still has one of the worst rates in Europe.
"We have come as far as we can get in terms of infrastructural improvements - among the best in Europe - to reduce the spread of MRSA. It is now up to the staff to change their ways," Dr Borg said.
Ten per cent or more of patients entering any hospital contract an MRSA infection, or another hospital bug unless good infection control practices are in place.
However, Dr Borg said he was pleased to note a significant drop in the number of the more serious MRSA blood infections which went down to an average of 1.9 cases a month at Mater Dei, compared with 3.7 cases at St Luke's.
The Intensive Therapy Unit was also a success story, he said. A collaborative programme with ITU consultants and nurses had led to a drastic decrease in MRSA and other multi-drug resistant organisms.
"If we can achieve a hand hygiene compliance rate of at least 60 per cent, we would halve the current rates of MRSA in hospital; it's not rocket science," Dr Borg said.