Filthy toilets in Tallaght Hospital

Qualitymark

I was in Tallaght Hospital yesterday, and like 90% of those visiting, went to visit the toilet on the ground floor by the reception desk.

It was filthy - the floor wet and smeared, and scattered with toilet paper.

A friend who was with me told the reception staff, who said they'd call the cleaners. Then we went upstairs, our sandals tracking the filth from the toilet floors, to visit a friend who'd just had a six-inch incision slashed in his belly, inviting infection.

When we left, I went to the toilet again, to find it unchanged. This time I went to reception, and again the staff said they'd call the cleaning staff. I said "You called them already, but they don't seem to have cleaned it," and they gave me a phone number and a woman's name to call to ask for action.

It's ironic - the hospital is covered in notices about washing your hands, yet hundreds of people are tracking around the germs from the toilet floors.

Do you visit or work in Tallaght Hospital? Is this usual?

(Mod - I can't see a Hospitals or Health forum; if there is one, maybe this needs moving?)

Vorsprung

Agree completely about the toilets, they should have been clean. But on the other hand, could it be possible that someone had just messed up the toilets? I mean, it's unreasonable to expect them to be cleaning them after every mess. Where I used to work, they were cleaned every hour, and I'd have thought that was reasonable enough.

On the other other hand, and while it wasn't your fault that you had to walk over a dirty floor, was it a good idea to go upto your post-op friend knowing that your shoes were filthy?

mardybumbum

I would be in there a minimum of once a week and have always found them to be clean.
How much time elapsed between visiting your friend and going to the bathroom the second time?

Alun

Qualitymark wrote: »

Do you visit or work in Tallaght Hospital? Is this usual?

Not recently, but I have visited the hospital in a work capacity quite a few times in recent years and have never had an issue with the toilets there in reception, or any of the others in the building, I must say.

Qualitymark

We stayed about an hour. It didn't look like one person's mess.

I looked at the toilets up on the floor where the wards were, and they were acceptably clean, but this toilet was at the entrance - undoubtedly the most used - and didn't appear to have been recently cleaned. Torn toilet paper all over the floor, and the floor smeared and wet and trodden. That weird blue light (I've heard it's to stop junkies finding a vein, and peered curiously at my arm to see if I could see veins under the blue light; rather disappointingly I could see them perfectly.)

It may have been between cleaning shifts - we were there at 6.30ish and left at 7.45ish.

Thanks for the reassurance, mardybumbum and Alun - it's good to know that this is an uncommon episode of filthiness.

Pixied

I've found them filthy. A disgrace to be honest.

Dr Galen

so what do you sugges they do about it?

Qualitymark

Dr Galen wrote: »

so what do you sugges they do about it?

Clean the toilets more often, and put up notices asking people to keep them clean. I'd get rid of the blue light too.

TouchingVirus

This may seem silly, but surely the toilet wasn't in any worse condition than the pathways outside from your car to the door of the hospital? As far as I know there are no sterilising mats to wipe your feet on like back in the foot & mouth scare days. Were your shoes (and that of every other person attending the hospital) free of bacteria the minute you stepped over the threshold?

I'm not saying you should be wallowing in urine or whatever in the toilets, it is most definitely a situation that needed highlighting and attention, but it really isn't that big an issue IMO.

Qualitymark

TouchingVirus wrote: »

I'm not saying you should be wallowing in urine or whatever in the toilets, it is most definitely a situation that needed highlighting and attention, but it really isn't that big an issue IMO.

TouchingVirus, yours is a typically Irish attitude - we tend to say "Ah, sure a bit of dirt never hurt anyone", possibly because of our temperate climate, which means that bacteria don't spread as readily as in hot climates.

But when people are sick and vulnerable they're at much greater risk of infection from bacteria. The less bacteria, the less infection.

Hospitals should be super-glossy-clean. It is a big issue.

Dr Galen

Qualitymark wrote: »

Clean the toilets more often, and put up notices asking people to keep them clean. I'd get rid of the blue light too.

well tbh I know the hospital pretty well, and have been in and out of those toilets hundreds of times over the years, and have never seen them is a state like the one you describe. I've seen a bit of mess alright, but short of having a person permanently stationed in them, ready to clean up spills etc I can't see what more they can do. Public toilets get messy in fairness.

Reporting incidences like this are the best course of action imho. That way it can get sorted. Signs up asking people to keep them clean, might make a difference to people like you or me, who aren't that likely to mess the place up in the first place, but will have feck all effect on a 10 year old who thinks splashing water around is great craic althogether.

As for the blue lights, they are pretty common place these days, and unfort a necessary evil.

TouchingVirus

Qualitymark wrote: »

TouchingVirus, yours is a typically Irish attitude - we tend to say "Ah, sure a bit of dirt never hurt anyone", possibly because of our temperate climate, which means that bacteria don't spread as readily as in hot climates.

You've completely misread my attitude on the issue, thanks for that.

But when people are sick and vulnerable they're at much greater risk of infection from bacteria. The less bacteria, the less infection.

You don't need to explain the simple stuff to me; I've spent enough time in hospital to know about the risks associated with bacteria in hospitals.

Hospitals should be super-glossy-clean. It is a big issue.

If you want a super-glossy-clean hospital then don a hasmat suit and enter a cleaning chamber before entering them. I believe that the bacteria garnered on a shoe from a urine-laden floor inside a hospital has about as much bacteria on it than a shoe that's been used by the wearer to trudge paths, fields, roads and basically everywhere else a shoe goes.

The bigger picture is that every visitor walking into the hospital is already carrying countless germs and bacteria on their shoes and body from elsewhere. Why is this the bacteria picked up from the toilet any different to one picked up walking on a path that previous had dog excrement on it? The fact is, it isn't.

The way I see it is "Dirty shoes went in, dirty shoes got wet, bacteria washed away, other bacteria got on them, walked around the hospital". It's no different than "Dirty shoes went in, walked around the hospital".

The main point of contention shouldn't be that you had bacteria on your shoes and 'Woe, save the hospital from the urine germs' - The point should be that once you complained, nothing was done. Screw the germs, they're everywhere already even without your contribution.

The Muppet

Qualitymark wrote: »

Clean the toilets more often, and put up notices asking people to keep them clean. I'd get rid of the blue light too.

How often are they cleaned at present?

Are you aware of the function of the blue light?

Qualitymark

The Muppet wrote: »

How often are they cleaned at present?

Are you aware of the function of the blue light?

They weren't cleaned in the hour to hour-and-a-half I was in, anyway.

As far as I know the blue light is supposed to stop drug-takers injecting themselves, and is no longer used abroad, but I may be wrong in this.