Whose dirty hands put medical linen on cost-cut cleaning cycle?

AN INVESTIGATION BY BEIJING NEWS has exposed two laundries washing hospital linen in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, ignore the proper procedure of high-temperature sterilization, which is compulsory in the industry. China Youth Daily comments:

The report also shows the compulsory classified laundry, which requires washing used linens from different departments of a hospital separately, is completely ignored as the laundry workers wash all the dirty linens from a hospital together, including bloody medical linens which are mixed with other sheets and patient clothing irrespective of which departments they are from.

All these malpractices are caused by the laundry owners' greed, as well as the poor supervision of the public health, industrial and market administrative departments, and the silence of the hospitals.

According to the National Health Commission's regulation on the sterilization of hospital supplies, the linens should be managed as medical apparatus and instruments, and there are strict procedures for their washing and sterilization.

That the two laundry enterprises have the audacity to turn their back on the regulation, totally ignoring the standards and requirements, means that the relevant authorities that are supposed to be supervising the industry have all failed in their duties.

Regretfully, none of the parties has stood out to respond to the reports, making the linen users, which include doctors and nurses as well as patients, the victims of the malpractice that fattens certain people's pockets.

The public health authority must include the laundries, as well as other sterilization service providers for hospital supplies, in its medical care quality and security management and control system as soon as possible.

Whether medical linen is hygienic and disinfected is not a trivial matter, but a major issue related to people's health.