THE purpose of going into hospital is to receive treatment and then get discharged and be on the road to recovery.

There are too many instances of patients contacting hospital acquired infections and having their stay extended or becoming even more unwell.

There are various reasons for these infections and it is too simple to blame staff for not following hygiene procedures.

The viruses themselves can be incredibly resilient and visitors need to take the appropriate precautions to ensure they are not bringing germs into the hospital.

No-one wants it to reach the stage where healthcare staff are losing their jobs and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde says action has been taken where necessary.

However, it must be ensured that there are robust procedures for dealing with breaches of hygiene policy wherever they occur.

It is in all our interests to ensure hospitals are as free of potentially deadly viruses as possible and it is not enough to leave responsibility to nursing and medical staff alone.

As patients and visitors we have a role to follow the health board procedures on hand hygiene and health boards and the government must ensure hospitals are adequately resourced to ensure they are as clean and properly staffed as they need to be.