[captainnemo]

As I understand it, alcohol wipes are not effective against C. Diff but luckily good old soap and water works just fine against that one so there isn't any need for high tech magic there.
It is probably true that there is plenty of MRSA and the like out in the community but we aren't addressing the possibility of people keeling over in the wide world, we're looking at people in hospital, where you normally go to get less unwell....

Whatever explanations are offered to explain the problems experienced in the NHS (and there are plenty of reasons given....other than poor routine hygiene practice...cos that would sound a bit dodgy) it is difficult to avoid comparison with the incidence of similar infections in European hospitals and the standard practices exercised there. Logic would suggest that European countries should have a rate of hospital-acquired infections on a per capita level similar to the UK and this is not the case.

The concept of the NHS is superb, free medical treatment for all. There are literally thousands of individuals in the NHS who perform more than they might reasonably be expected to do and should be recognised for that. Unfortunately the latter factor tends to conceal problems in the central theory. The 'free' NHS actually costs rather a lot of billions and we are getting short-changed across the board...including the poor sods who work their nuts off to keep overworked and under-resourced departments functioning while a bloated bureaucracy churns out endless 'targets'....many of which are counterproductive.

The original belief of the great and good who devised the NHS back in the 1940s was that over time the provision of free health care would promote a healthier general population which would consequently diminish demand on the need for subsequent health provision.....and their optimism was not borne out by circumstance. That doesn't mean they were wrong to set up the NHS but some sacred cows need to be slaughtered. It remains to be seen where the bolt gun should be wielded but it seems odd that so many of the paper clip counters get paid so much more than trained medical professionals....when I go to hospital I'd rather see more nurses looking after more widely spaced beds and if that means that there need to be some empty spaces in the offices at the local health authority I could probably live with that.