Doesn't take £50m to battle bugs
April 1st 2007 The recently announced £50m Capital Challenge Fund to find simple ward level improvements to fight superbugs equates to £300k max per acute Trust.Teal Patents thinks a fraction of it would be well spent on portable hot water hand wash units Arecent letter to Trust, PCT and SHA chief executives, chief medical office, Sir Liam Donaldson and NHS chief exec David Nicholson invites applications for up to £300,000 per acute Trust for the cash to "enable investment in tackling infections to be increased quickly". The letter refers to "rigorous hand hygiene by hand washing after each patient contact" and states that "alcohol-based hand hygiene gels are not suitable for use in the management off C.difficile and associated diarrhoea". Teal hot water hand wash units require no fixed draining or plumbing as they store both dirty and clean water.They are completely portable and require just a power supply to operate. Two hundred of the company's Cascade hot water hand wash units are currently on front line duty in Army field hospitals in Afghanistan and Iraq – where no cases of superbug infections have been reported to date."If we can achieve this level of success in such unfavourable conditions and surroundings, imagine the impact our products could make in this country," says Teal md, Mike Stanley. The range includes floor standing and wall mounted units as well as others which can be installed on vehicles. Teal hand wash units are also environmentally friendly – using the equivalent of only a wine glass of water per wash and a quarter of the energy needed for heating water using a conventional plumbed-in system. | 
