If "coughs and sneezes spread diseases" what do unwashed hands do? I ask because if anything puts plummeting standards into context in 2004 it's the alarming announcement that the best way to kickstart the battle against the frightening and pernicious MRSA superbug in hospitals is to ensure every person - and that has to include patients - washes his or her hands thoroughly. Just the thought of this run-of-the-mill and routine procedure being ignored is enough to cause much wringing of hands, never mind washing, among all those waiting to go into hospital. Who the hell doesn't wash their hands in a hospital after touching sick people or handling instruments? It must be those same people we've all heard when we've been in the toilet cubicle at work, in a pub, or a shop; they flush the toilet, open the door, come out into the washbasin area and scarper. Yuk. What are they thinking of? Not about hygiene, certainly. Yet while they are on about establishing new cleaning regimes in hospitals, I hope they look at other possible changes to the way hospitals are run that could make all the difference. Visitors, for example. They get off their buses or trains or the Metro and trail in to see patients bringing heaven knows what in on their clothing. They take their coats off and lay them on the bed, they kiss whoever's in the bed and then they stay sometimes for up to six hours a day, popping to use the patient's toilet when no one is looking. Who's to say they're not culprits too? What of the patients taken out for a cigarette or shopping during their hospital stay? What about the nursing staff who go home in their uniforms? The questions just keep on coming. And nor is it enough to lay the blame for dirty wards solely at the hands of the cleaners. "We are looked at like we are the dirt," a former hospital cleaner told me this week. "Yet you should see the staff areas we were cleaning. You would not believe that decent so-called professional people could leave toilets and washrooms like they did. It would turn your stomach." Nor should the gleaming reception areas in our showpiece hospitals fool anyone, she said. "Sometimes it could take as many as eight cleaners to polish the floor through the night in reception, while we had to ensure there was not a cigarette end in sight beyond the doors. A good impression for visitors was all that seemed to matter." One thing's for sure. It'll take more than a shiny floor now.... *********** Own goal on TV drama Once again the programme planners have shot themselves in the foot by lining up the glossy Newcastle-based police drama 55 Degrees North against the second and concluding part of Rose and Maloney, not to mention the compulsive viewing that is Wife Swap on Channel 4. What is the point of that? Having missed 55 Degrees North the first week, I scoured the television guides in vain to see when BBC would screen a repeat so I could catch up. After all, BBC has all those channels now. Surely they could find room to repeat their latest drama so that those who stuck with either ITV or Channel 4 could see what all the fuss was about. Sadly not. They repeat EastEnders, of course, and all sorts of other dross, but not the one gritty new series they actually promote on BBC1 at every opportunity. *********** Sports snag for UK How demoralising - and dispiriting - for the British Olympic squad to be paraded as the smallest and weakest for years even before they've boarded the plane for Greece. They even looked miserable in their team photograph, wearing hangdog expressions that suggested they'd do their best, even though they already knew that they'd been labelled also-rans or their best wouldn't be good enough. It really is deplorable that in the four years since those marvellous Sydney Olympics we have not managed to find, coach, inspire or invest in a sporting future for this country, particularly in track and field. Olympic-size swimming pools are a rarity, school sports days died a death on Government orders - though I see Tessa Jowell is now advocating a quick return to competition on the sports field (provided the field hasn't been sold off). Watching Sport Relief the other night I couldn't help wondering why the £11m raised by the public - not the millionaire sports stars, you'll note, who kindly gave their time on the television programme for nothing (big deal!) - couldn't have gone into developing an academy in this country to offer sporting scholarships to young talented Olympic hopefuls. *********** Small traders more vulnerable Sureley the most shocking story of the week was the sale of Tynedale Park in Hexham to Tesco, putting both Robbs of Hexham and Joplings of Sunderland at risk if no separate buyers can be found. Tynedale Park was one of the first "all under one roof" superstores and though traders in Hexham may sometimes have felt that many shoppers never made it past Tynedale Park into the "top rung" of the town, once it becomes a Tesco many small businesses in the Tyne Valley - already hit by the proximity to the MetroCentre - will surely become even more vulnerable. Meanwhile, don't you sometimes feel that Tesco is intent on taking over the world? *********** Congratulations to everyone involved in the fantastic end-of-year celebrations at West Jesmond Primary School this week. If you can imagine the riot of colour created by more than 600 children all in costume, with their faces painted, staging a non-stop three-ring circus for nearly an hour in front of hundreds of parents in the school yard, you'd have been as enthralled as I was. And I didn't even have a child in the school! | 
