HOSPITALS are getting tough on germs in a bid to crack down on killer bug MRSA and viruses.

Patients, visitors and staff at Wycombe, Amersham, and Stoke Mandeville hospitals are being encouraged to get involved in the "cleanyour-hands" campaign.

The new hand hygiene initiative aims to raise awareness about how easily bugs on your hands can spread and cause infections.

The campaign is trying to encourage everyone who enters a hospital to wash their hands regularly and thoroughly.

The scheme supported by the National Patient Safety Agency specifically promotes the use of alcohol-based hand rubs, which are placed by every bed in the trust's hospitals.

They are effective in killing 99.9 per cent of all bugs, including MRSA, the common cold virus and most food poisoning bacteria.

The hand rubs have been placed in wards for two years now but campaigners hope to encourage everyone to wash their hands when they enter and leave a hospital.

Sarah Cantrill, nurse in infection control at Wycombe Hospital, has been co-ordinating the drive.

She said: "International studies have shown that simply washing your hands properly can have a dramatic effect in reducing the risk of passing on infections.

"The cleanyourhands campaign has been designed to build a culture whereby hand hygiene and infection control is everyone's responsibility."

From now on, staff will wear badges which say "It's OK to ask" which is designed to encourage patients to ask if they have washed their hands recently.

Nurses working in intensive care often need to clean their hands up to 40 times an hour. The National Patient Safety Agency realise that staff are very busy and sometimes they may need a helpful reminder.

Mrs Cantrill added: "While the Department of Health recently rated us as having the tenth lowest MRSA rate among the 45 comparable trusts, we are certainly not complacent. Initiatives like this campaign can only help reinforce the message that hand hygiene is extremely important."

Visit www.npsa.nhs.uk for more information

THE grim reality of what lives on our hands was revealed in an experiment carried out by a Free Press reporter at Wycombe Hospital.

Guinea pig Julian Howson was asked by infection control nurse Sarah Cantrill to roll his grubby paws on a petri dish to see what bugs were lurking in the crevices of his skin. That dish was then kept under observation for 48 hours to see what would grow from it.

Our man was then given a masterclass in how professionals wash their hands in a hospital.

He was asked to place his newly cleaned hands on another dish to see if anything would grow from that. The experiment was designed to show that washing hands with hospital hand rubs can kill 99.9 per cent of all bugs that we carry on our skin.

Mrs Cantrill said the types of things Julian could have on his hands are bacteria and environmental organisms picked up from touching objects like computer keyboards.