Raigmore ward reopens after specialist cleaning
A ward at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness has now reopened after being closed for 24 hours to allow for specialist cleaning to take place.
The hospital has been hit by a spate of ward closures in the past few years because of outbreaks of Clostridium difficile.
Ward 4C was cleaned using Hydrogen Peroxide Vapour which is a new method that is particularly effective at decontaminating the fabric of the building including floors and walls.
An NHS Highland spokeswoman said the cleaning process was carried out by a team of specialists, and was completed successfully.
The ward was handed back to hospital staff Tuesday night (2nd) and was fully operational yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon.
Dr Emma Watson, Consultant Microbiologist and Lead Infection Control Doctor for NHS Highland, said: "I am very pleased with the way this cleaning process has gone and we are really grateful to patients for their full co-operation
"We are expecting this new method to have a significant and immediate impact but will know more once we have completed detailed monitoring, which is underway.
"It is important to emphasise that this is supplementary to routine infection prevention and control measures.
"Earlier in the year we also introduced a new and more sensitive testing regime. We are already seeing the benefits of this which is allowing us to detect infection earlier."
The C diff bacteria causes severe diarrhea and other intestinal disease when competing bacteria in the gut flora have been wiped out by antibiotics.
