A TSA report published on 28 June finds that cash-strapped NHS Trusts are forcing nurses to wash uniforms at home and as a result they are bringing potentially harmful infections into the hospital and then back into the home at the end of the working day.
The report claims that hygiene standards in a hospital kitchen or a dog food factory are higher than those required for the cleaning of a nurses’ uniform.
The TSA urges the Department of Health and NHS to recognise that washing nurses’ uniforms at home poses a risk to public health and to change their policy on this practice, which is almost universal.
Further details in LCN August.