IHEEM’s recent seminar in Birmingham, ‘Dirty Little Secrets’, not only focused on the key priorities for keeping surgical instruments clean and sterile (HEJ – April 2012), but also featured a timely presentation by Dr Jimmy Walker, principal investigator, Decontamination, HPA Microbiology Services, at the Health Protection Agency, in which the highly experienced microbiologist shared his expertise on what appears to be becoming an increasingly prevalent problem for healthcare estates and engineering personnel.
How to ensure that levels of Pseudomonas, a waterborne bacterium potentially particularly harmful to immunocompromised patients, and often found in hospital water supplies, are rapidly detected, kept to a minimum, and, wherever possible, eliminated.
Dr Walker’s presentation was particularly timely for, while the risk of nosocomial infection in hospitals caused by Legionella, Pseudomonas, and a variety of other hard-to-eradicate waterborne bacteria is ever-present, the microbiologist’s address came hard on the heels of the Pseudomonas outbreaks in a number of neonatal units at NHS hospitals in Northern Ireland. These sadly resulted in the death of four very young babies, and necessitated the implementation of an extensive tap replacement programme, together with reinforcement of hygiene procedures in the hospitals concerned. The incidents, and the ensuing deaths, also saw several concurrent high profile investigations to establish the cause, including an independent review ordered by Northern Ireland’s Health Minster, Edwin Poots, and led by Professor Pat Troop CBE, former Chief Executive of the Health Protection Agency. (an interim report was published by the review team on 4 April. To access the ‘Independent Review of Incidents of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infection in Neonatal Units in Northern Ireland – Interim Report’, visit: www.tinyurl.com/cbw3wn9). Although the various investigations were still very much ongoing at the time of the IHEEM seminar, and thus Dr Walker was limited in what he could say, he explained that he and his HPA colleague, Peter Hoffman, had acted as advisors on the Health Protection Agency’s behalf to a number of the Northern Ireland Health Trusts. He was thus able, towards the end of his address, to briefly run through some of the measures recommended, and taken, by the Trusts, after Pseudomonas aeruginosa was found in water from taps in a number of clinical handwash basins in neonatal units.
Inbuilt protection
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