Doctors who don't wash hands kill more people than drink drivers

Doctors and nurses who fail to wash their hands cause as much damage as drink drivers, a top NHS adviser said today.

According to recent research, as many as one in five clinical staff neglect to wash their hands between patients, despite evidence it reduces hospital infection.

Speaking at the International Society for Quality in Healthcare conference today, Sir John Oldham, Head of the Improvement Foundation, said clinicians who fail to wash their hands should be treated with "equal disdain" to drink drivers.

"Simple things like clean wards and effective hand washing between patients cuts the incidence of hospital acquired infections enormously. How hard is that?"

"Given the existence of MRSA, not having clean wards and not washing your hands is the clinical equivalent of drink driving. It maims and kills." "And we should treat it with equal disdain. This isn't the fault of the government; it is the responsibility of individuals."

He added effective hand washing has been proven to cut the occurrence of hospital acquired infections, which cost the NHS £1 billion every year.

Sir John referred to figures from both the Office of Statistics and the Department of Transport which showed that in 2004, MRSA killed 1,168 patients in England and Wakes, compared to the 580 people who died as a result of drink driving incidents in Great Britain.