Cardboard Nurses Backed

A DECISION to spend pounds 150,000 on life-size cardboard cut- out nurses for North East hospitals and GP surgeries has been defended.

The 6ft figures have been placed in healthcare settings across the region, warning people to wash their hands and use alcohol gels in a bid to tackle infections such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile.

But Northumberland GP Rob Lambourn criticised spending money on the cut-outs when the areas care trust is struggling with a pounds 14m deficit.

Dr Lambourn, from the Burnhouse Surgery in Wooler, said: “This hardly seems a worthwhile use of public money. If they had asked us, we would have preferred a real nurse to screen, treat and educate patients.

Over the past two weeks, we have had our district nursing services cut and now we have been given cardboard nurses instead.”

But Ian Dalton, chief executive of the North East strategic health authority, said the pounds 5m campaign to further reduce infections included new staff isolation facilities and hi-tech cleaning equipment in hospitals.

(c) 2008 Evening Chronicle – Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.