Six thousand lessons ‘learned the hard way’

Tom Makin BSc Hons, MWMSoc, CEO and chief consultant of Envirocloud, an independent water hygiene consultant and Authorising Engineer (Water) for NHS Trusts across the UK, reports on the results and lessons learned from his recent work collecting Pseudomonas aeruginosa samples from 14 hospital Trusts across the UK. Armed with these results, and trial data on new Pseudomonas detection and control technologies, he considers progress to date in controlling what he dubs ‘this resolute and ubiquitous pathogen’ in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. 

It is hard to believe that it has been almost five years since I was asked to carry out the first independent validation reports for the majority of Northern Ireland’s hospital Trusts following the fatal outbreaks of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in neonatal intensive care units. The outbreaks sparked the publication of the Health Technical Memorandum 04-01 Addendum: Pseudomonas aeruginosa – advice for augmented care units, and spawned the dawn of a new era in the monitoring and control of opportunistic nosocomial waterborne pathogens. No longer is it acceptable to only sample for waterborne pathogens where we understand there may be an issue, as was the case with Legionella. Instead, a proactive water sampling regime for all augmented care outlets which have direct or indirect patient contact is advised every six months. Extensive resampling and remedial works are required at outlets that test positive for P. aeruginosa. 

‘Alarming virulence’