If you want a job doing properly you have to do it yourself.

That is the principle behind a company's innovation to help people reduce the risk of getting MRSA in hospital.

Keeping the area around a patient as clean as possible is an important way to cut the chance of getting the life-threatening superbug, which kills at least 5,000 patients a year in England and Wales.

Littlehampton-based Direct Hygiene & Workwear (DHW) has developed individual sanitising kits which people can take into hospital and use to clean up around them.

The company, which has been operating for 20 years, usually supplies specialist medical cleaning equipment in bulk to the NHS, nursing homes and other parts of the industry.

There are many people who carry MRSA, or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, but never have any ill effects.

However, patients with open wounds or surgical scars are more at risk as MRSA has the opportunity to infect wounds and get inside the body.

It is mainly older, sicker and weaker people that are in hospitals, making them more vulnerable to infection and serious complications caused by the bug.

Hospitals have an extremely high volume of staff coming and going and doctors and nurses who may have just touched another patient might sometimes forget to sanitise their hands before they reach the next patient.

Alternatively a visitor to the hospital may be carrying the bug and inadvertently spread the infection.

Government ministers have set ambitious targets to reduce the problem but this will take time.

DHW managing director Neal Eason said the individual packs, called Pro-Kits, will give people peace of mind in the meantime.

He said: "We wanted to give people the opportunity to use these cleaning materials for themselves instead of having to rely on what the hospital may have done.

"MRSA rates are still high in hospitals and there seems to be little sign of it going away.

"Being able to do something for yourself may help you to relax a little.

"I went to see a friend in hospital recently and I saw there were dispensers where staff should have washed their hands with a special soap.

"However, I saw quite a few doctors and nurses going in and out and they did not bother."

Hospitals in Sussex have some of the highest MRSA infection rates in England and Wales, with Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust ranked second in a list of trusts, with a rate of 0.37 cases of infection per 1,000 bed days.

Mr Eason said the packs could also be used on holiday if people were concerned about the condition of a hotel room.

The Pro-Kit comes in a compact nylon zip bag, which is no bigger than a shoe bag, with an adjustable strap.

It contains a special anti-bacterial soap, hand sanitisers which kill germs in 15 seconds, a specially-formulated antiseptic skin conditioning cream, sanitising wipes and disposable latex gloves.

It will be on offer at £29.95.

For more details, call 01903 731122 or email sales@hygieneandworkwear.co.uk
April 26, 2005