NHS to use bug-free keyboards

[The Feedster]

Have you got a dirty QWERTY? So asked the Sun back in Maywhen a study showed that your beloved keyboard was more germ-infested than yourtoilet. And when we say more, we mean FIVE times more.

The NHS knows the dangers of this, considering the amount ofbugs it has to deal with on a daily basis in its hospitals and that's why theservice is changing the keyboards it uses.

The NHS has ordered 7,500 of thekeyboards that in tests have cut up to 70 per cent of bacteria levels, whenthey are cleaned twice daily.

Anti-infection

The new keyboards are part of a million pound contract that shouldmake even the office environments in hospitals that bit safer.

The keyboards are called Medigenics and are said to cutinfection rates from bugs like Clostridium difficile and MRSA. The keyboardsthemselves are completely flat and are coated with hypoallergenic material.

There'salso a light that goes on automatically to tell you when your keyboard needscleaning.

Dr Peter Wilson, of University College London Hospital and one of thecreators of the keyboard said about the device: "Doctors and nurses weregoing from patient to keyboard without washing their hands.

"That's quite understandable because you would wash your hands betweenpatients but not between a patient and a keyboard. Compliance with twice dailycleaning went up from 10-20 per cent with the keyboard covers to 87 per centwith the new model."

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