By Healthcare Facilities Today

Wellington Hospital in Wellington, New Zealand, has a range of hygiene concerns including waiting-room chairs that were declared an infection risk - with the children's ward among the worst areas, according to an article on the TVNZ website.

An audit of Capital & Coast District Health Board found chairs in the hospital's waiting room and beds in the children's wards had "deteriorated" so badly that there were holes in the vinyl of both. They were considered too ragged to clean to an acceptable infection control standard and have been flagged as a safety risk by the Ministry of Health, the article said.

The health board was ordered to take 18 "corrective actions", with the children's ward singled out by ministry auditors as of particular concern. The auditors said the ward was inadequate and they demanded to see improvements within three months.

The audit also revealed that a patient with the antibiotic-resistant superbug MRSA was allowed to mingle with other Wellington Hospital patients for 24 hours, despite a doctor documenting the risk and recommending isolation, the article said.

Furniture did not pose a "significant" infection risk, district health board interim chief executive Debbie Chin  said in the article. It had already been scheduled for replacement in an internal review, and a health and safety officer would now assess all furniture every six months.

Other audit findings included:

• The emergency department, children's ward and main foyer could not be cleaned to the level required for proper hygiene to be maintained.

• There were no safeguards on baths being used by sick children.

• "While there is an instruction notice to parents (to rinse and dry the bath) there is no process for ensuring the children's baths are cleaned between uses to an infection control standard".

Read the article.