One in 20 will get sick at Irish hospitals

Given our recent brush with illness, I was shocked to read that, statistically, one in 20 will get sick in Irish hospitals.

Now I’ve felt pretty good about the care received in my single and wifey’s few incidents of hospitalisation in this country. But I did note this last time, what with a munchkin now toddling every direction possible and being mostly resistant to being carried around at this stage, how unclean hospitals actually are.

My sister the paramedic has repeatedly cautioned me about this and, of course, there is the old adage, “A hospital is a terrible place to be if you’re sick”. It’s just disturbing to actually see it in cold, black letters.

More disturbing is watching the munchkin toddle toward mommy’s hospital ward room beneath multiple hand sanitising stations along a hospital corridor before gravity wins her over, depositing her on her hands and knees. At which point she laughs at her misfortune and – before daddy can react, compulsively sticks those little fingers into her mouth.

It’s not that Irish hospitals seem less clean than – oh, any other hospital – but just that when you can’t help but be there among the sick and infected that you start to wonder “So, what exactly ARE the odds of me getting sick here?”

Well, now you know.

Folks, be good, be clean, but for God’s sake, people – be safe.