Meat plants 'cleaner than some of our hospitals'
Wednesday June 22 2005
She pointed out that in her previous role as industry minister she had visited meat factories and food processing concerns and found them to be cleaner than some hospitals.
"We would not allow food to be produced in the kind of hygiene environment in which patients are treated, and that is not acceptable," she said.
Ms Harney also told the Dail there was "no excuse for low standards when huge money is being spent on cleaning programmes".
An all-out national effort was needed to deal with the MRSA problem and anything that required to be done would be done, she said.
Defending the hygiene audit of hospitals, already announced, she said it was not the only initiative - making the information publicly available would in itself act as a pressure on those with responsibility in the area to act quickly.
The minister said she would repeat a comment that she had previously made about how "when the nuns were running the hospitals they were always spotless".
- Geraldine Collins
