Hospital of Saint John and Saint Elizabeth - you are in good hands
Accreditation
Every consultant who works at John and Lizzie’s is audited in line with the requirements of the Healthcare Commission. They must be on the appropriate specialist register and hold (or have held) a substantive NHS consultant post. In all cases, we verify their qualifications, sub-specifications and medical insurance. In addition, all staff employed by the hospital undergo qualifications and criminal record checks every two years.
The hospital itself is registered and inspected by the Healthcare Commission. The pathology services are accredited by the widely respected Clinical Pathology Accreditation Ltd, and the surgical units for colorectal cancer and breast cancer are approved by BUPA.
There are always at least 13 members of staff on site with advanced life support training for adults, and 10 members of staff with advanced life support training for children — this is a very high level of cover. (Advanced life support training is the “gold standard” for doctors and nurses to manage the early stages of a medical emergency.)
Infection Control
At the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth we are committed to the prevention and control of infection.
Infection Control is about preventing the spread of infection from one patient to another and we do this by the implementation of the most up to date policies based on National Guidelines and Protocols.
Many hospital staff are involved in Infection Control including, the Infection Control Team, Infection Control Departmental Representatives, Clinical, Domestic, Catering and Portering Staff.
All staff are trained in basic Infection Control measures with specific training for staff in their area of work.
Other measures taken to prevent the spread of infection at The Hospital of St John & St Elizabeth include.
All patients are nursed in single en-suite rooms.
Alcohol gel is available throughout the hospital the use of which is encouraged by all staff, patients and visitors.
The hospital uses single use disposable equipment whenever possible and other equipment is cleaned, disinfected and sterilised according to National Guidelines.
Regular audits are carried out throughout the hospital to ensure a high standard of cleanliness and hygiene and that adherence to the Infection Control Policies is maintained.
All infections which occur within the hospital are reported to the Infection Control Nurse who monitors and records the infection rates.
We have a rigorous screening procedure to detect carriers of MRSA.
MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) is a Staphylococcus Aureus bacterium which has become resistant to Penicillin and Cephalosporin antibiotics.
Healthy people can carry it on the skin or in the nasal passages with no ill effects this is called colonisation.
MRSA can cause problems though when it enters the body through breaks in the skin such as wounds, but there are still many antibiotics available for treatment if an infection occurs and advice on treatment is always available from our Infection Control Team.
Any patients with MRSA colonisation or infection will be treated usually with a nasal cream and special soap and steps will be taken to prevent the spread of the bacteria to other patients.
All the MRSA cases in 2005 were imported to the hospital and because of these procedures being taken from admission there were no instances of cross infection between patients.
Even with these imported cases the MRSA rate at The Hospital of St John & St Elizabeth for 2005 is 0.43% of all patients admitted and there were no instances of MRSA Bacteraemia.