Minister Under Fire for Sitting on Bed

AN NHS Trust governor has criticised the Secretary of State for Health after he broke the rules regarding hospital infections during a visit to the region.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson visited Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary on Monday for a media photocall to announce “golden hello” deals worth thousands of pounds in an effort to lure former midwives back to work.

Alf McManus, a governor of the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust for three years, said he was appalled to see Mr Johnson sitting on a hospital bed while nursing a newborn baby.

He said: “I was appalled to see Alan Johnson sitting on a hospital bed, ‘nursing’ a baby in his off-the-street suit. Every nurse who saw this must be livid after years of fighting against hospital acquired infections. He is supposed to be promoting the campaign.” The former chemistry teacher said that not allowing people to sit on patients’ beds was a strategy at the forefront of the campaign to reduce superbugs such as MRSA and Clostridium Difficile (C diff).

The Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the RVI, said that while it did not encourage people to sit on hospital beds, all precautionary measures had been taken during the minister’s visit. A spokesperson said “in this particular instance the mother specifically invited Alan Johnson to take the baby and have a photograph taken.”

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