Ninewells Hospital has gone some way towards cleaning up its act after two critical reports on the level of hygiene.
The Healthcare Environment Inspectorate has published a report on an unannounced inspection of five wards in November which found all ward and clinical areas were clean and there was evidence of systematic improvements.
In two visits in November 2010 and April last year, it found a number of areas for action to reduce the risk of patients contracting infections.
The hospital previously endured a damning report into its treatment of an 80-year-old woman who died of pneumonia 16 days after she started receiving heavy dosages of medication for her condition.
After the second critical inspection, Health Minister Nicola Sturgeon ordered the hospital to raise its performance, and sought an assurance that improvements will be made as a top priority.
The move prompted NHS Tayside chief executive Gerry Marr to insist that Ninewells was a clean hospital to reassure the public.
The Healthcare Environment Inspectorate arrived without warning two months ago and were much happier with what they found.
Their praise was not unqualified, however, as the report listed two requirements and one recommendation for improvement. NHS Tayside has developed an action plan to address these points.
NHS Tayside welcomed the report. A spokesman said: ”We are very pleased with the findings of the HEI report. Our frontline staff have made considerable efforts to introduce changes and make improvements to the way that we tackle some of the environmental issues in our wards and their hard work has been recognised in this very positive report.
”However, we’ll never be complacent about the necessity to keep improving and our priority will always be to keep driving standards up in a consistent and sustainable way so we can improve outcomes for patients.
”Infection is usually the thing that members of the public tell us they are most concerned about when they come into hospital. I want to take this opportunity to reassure members of the public that our rates of infection continue to go down and our doctors, nurses, domestic and estates staff will keep on striving to ensure that we can reduce these small numbers even further.”
Sandy Watson, chairman of NHS Tayside, added: ”We are extremely pleased that the inspection team found several areas of good practice. This is confirmation of the commitment and hard work of all staff working across Ninewells.
”Non-executive members of Tayside NHS Board have been carrying out unannounced visits to wards alongside NHS Tayside officers and we will continue with this local programme to reassure the public that our staff are driving up standards and making a difference to patient outcomes.”