Exterminate! (From Dorset Echo)

Exterminate!

11:16am Tuesday 1st April 2008 in

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DALEKS have been let loose to exterminate germs in Dorset County Hospital.

The special machines, given their nickname by hospital staff, have been leading a deep clean due to finish this week across all hospitals in England.

The NHS missed its target to finish the clean at every trust by the end of March but Dorset County Hospital has completed the process successfully.

Head of nursing Sally Pinnock said three special £14,000 robots had undertaken six months of intense cleaning.

She said the work of the "daleks" would cut infection levels by killing spores that cause MRSA and Clostridium difficile.

Mrs Pinnock said: "The machines look like daleks and have caused a bit of a stir.

"They have the same domed top and sit there like daleks puffing out a dry spray and making a bit of a noise.

"A cleaning chemical is produced which permeates curtains, beds, tables and anything else in the room.

"They do a very good job and people have been very impressed by them."

The real name for the machines is hydrogen peroxide dry mist vaporisation robots.

They are placed in wards after normal cleaning sessions.

Staff nicknamed them after the evil creatures in science fiction television series Doctor Who.

Mrs Pinnock said: "Since we got these machines we have been working through the whole hospital, bay by bay, as people leave rather than closing whole wards at a time.

"We have always had a good standards of cleanliness but this has enhanced what we are already doing and cleans to a higher spec."

She said the machines, which were bought with money from the Department of Health, had also been used in areas affected by the norovirus winter stomach bug.

Nationally, a total of £60 million has been spent on the deep cleaning programme since it was announced last year.

Some infection control experts have dubbed it a gimmick, claiming it will only have a short term impact on hospital infections.