A PIONEERING "patient power" project could see doctors at York Hospital being quizzed - on whether they have washed their hands.

Patients at York Hospital will be urged to ask doctors the question before they examine them, as part of a pilot scheme to improve hand hygiene on the wards.

York Health Services NHS Trust is one of only six across the country to be chosen to take part in the six-month pilot by the National Patient Safety Agency.

The £15,000 scheme will include "patient empowerment", where people will be encouraged to remind doctors and nurses to wash their hands between beds.

The pilot, which the trust applied to take part in, could cut the number of cases of hospital-acquired infections, such as the superbug MRSA, urinary tract infections and blood stream infections.

It will have no impact on the airborne Norwalk virus.

In February, doctors and nurses at York Hospital were given personal alcohol gel bottles to wear on their belts to encourage them to wash more frequently, as part of ongoing work by the trust to improve hand hygiene.

Vicki Parkin, senior infection control nurse with the trust, said the pilot follows studies in Geneva and Oxford which showed that patient involvement increased staff compliance with hygiene rules.

She said: "We want to give patients the confidence to say: 'Have you washed your hands before you look at my wounds?' They have a right to do that.

"It's not about being confrontational.

"Some doctors do acknowledge they are hopeless at washing their hands, and it's not easy to explain why people don't wash their hands.

"Sometimes they can't comprehend that such a simple procedure has such a profound impact.

"And often people believe that they wash their hands a lot, and they do, but not properly to get rid of those organisms."

Mrs Parkin said the Patient Advice Liaison Service (PALS) would be involved in getting the message across to patients, and posters will be put up around the hospital together with a range of other initiatives.

The details of the pilot scheme are due to be discussed at a meeting in London on May 14.

Updated: 11:00 Thursday, May 01, 2003