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Measuring patient satisfaction plays an increasingly important role in the growing push toward healthcare provider accountability. This study seeks to evaluate G.B. Pant Hospital (a North Indian tertiary care centre) patient satisfaction with clinical laboratory services.

A total of 100 out‐ and in‐patients were randomly selected and interviewed about microbiological services using a standard format, a method which can be easily used to compare patient satisfaction with laboratory services elsewhere.

Patients represented all age groups: females and males were balanced. Few were from poor socio‐economic backgrounds. Patients do not have problems getting tests done, but the laboratory's inconvenient location caused dissatisfaction. Patients do not have problems communicating with staff, but medical terms are not understood by patients. Hospital cleanliness needs improving, especially toilets, which causes the most patient dissatisfaction. Hospital staff were deemed highly competent and judged to give excellent technical help to patients. The questionnaire's financial subscale shows 100 per cent satisfaction because all tests in the microbiology department are free. The overall satisfaction with services stood at 83 per cent. Satisfaction scores for G.B. Pant Hospital appear to be satisfactory.

This study does not compare patient satisfaction in two or more hospitals and findings may not be generalisable.

Patient satisfaction surveys are the best way to identify deficiencies and improve hospital services. Repeating studies at six monthly intervals is a useful managerial intervention aimed at delivering and maintaining quality healthcare.

This laboratory satisfaction survey is the first of its kind for government hospitals in India. The survey revealed a positive feedback and helped to identify the areas of concern along with estimating the patient satisfaction scores. This is the best way to identify the areas of deficiencies and improving the services provided by the hospital. The authors feel that repeating such studies at a regular interval of six months would be a useful guide for the managerial interventions.

It is argued that food poisoning from salmonella‐infected food is serious and that there has been a dramatic and recent rise in the incidence of such poisoning which is accounted for by Salmonella enteritidis type 4, the source of which is eggs. The evidence for these claims is presented, the scale of the problem defined, and advice to the public given. Proposals for future controls in laying hens are suggested.

Interdisciplinary healthcare education and collaboration facilitates healthcare quality improvement (QI). Education challenges include cost, logistics and defining the optimum staff-engaging method. The purpose of this paper is to determine the optimum QI educational model and measure its impact using plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles.

The authors established an on-site interdisciplinary QI learning collaborative: weekly 30-minute learning sessions close to the working environment; a learning materials Twitter repository; and junior doctor-led QI work streams aligned with surgical directorate quality goals supported by a mentorship network. Delivery style (lectures, workshops and QI project reporting) and learning session content was planned weekly using PDSA cycles and modified using participant feedback (score 0-10). All surgical directorate QI work streams were measured before and at nine months.

From May 2014 to February 2015, there were 32 learning sessions with 266 scores (median 12 weekly, range 5-21). Workshop delivery scored the highest (mean score 9.0), followed by live project reports (mean score 8.8). The surgical QI work streams increased threefold from four to 12, including six junior doctor-led projects.

By proactively acting upon feedback, the authors centralised QI measurement and tailored learning sessions to staff needs. Building sustainability involves continually refining learning curriculum and QI work streams, and expanding the mentorship network.

The collaborative was established at no additional cost. Twitter is used to promote meetings, facilitate conversations and act as a learning repository. The mentorship framework builds QI and coaching expertise.

The study reported in this paper aims to synthesize some new curcumin containing sulphadiazine and sulphathiazole dyestuffs and study their application in dyeing silk fabrics rendering the dyed fabric antibacterial.

Simultaneous dyeing and antibacterial finishing for silk fabric using a new antibacterial acid dye having a modified chemical structure to curcumin were conducted. This modification of curcumin dye was carried out by introducing sulphonamide containing heterocyclic rings sulphadiazine and sulfathiazole through coupling with curcumin. All newly synthesized dyes were characterized by elemental analyses and spectral data (IR, 1H-NMR and MS). The dyeing characteristics of these dyestuffs were evaluated at optimum conditions. Antibacterial activities of the dyed samples at different concentrations of both dyes were studied against gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and gram-negative (Salmonella typhimurium) bacteria.

The synthesized curcumin-containing sulphonamide dyes were applied on silk fabrics. The modified dyes exhibited good fastness properties compared to curcumin dye at optimum conditions. It was found that synthesized dyes exhibit good fastness and antibacterial properties efficient against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. The dyed silk fabrics showed higher antibacterial efficacy after many times of washing.

Curcumin, a common natural dye used for fabric and food colouration, was used as an antimicrobial finish due to its bactericidal properties on dyed textiles. A common dyeing process could provide textiles with colour as well as antimicrobial properties. Novel antibacterial dyestuff containing curcumin moieties with sulphonamide coupler components were shown to be an interesting natural colorant for silk with high antimicrobial ability of the dyed silk fabrics. This work has afforded a new acid dye that can be used in medical textile.

Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is quite common and linked with serious public health issues such as premature delivery and spread of sexually transmitted infections. The study aims to identify different genital mycoplasmas (GM) in high vaginal swabs (HVS) from adult females in Bahrain.

In total, 401 HVS were collected and cultured on MYCOFAST^® RevolutioN 2 test for identification and antibiotic susceptibility. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed for detection of Mycoplasma genitalium (Mg), Mycoplasma hominis (Mh) and Ureaplasma species. DNA-probe based detection for Gardnerella, Candida and Trichomonas was performed by BD Affirm Assay. Representative PCR amplicons were sequenced by Sanger sequencing.

In PCR, Ureaplasma sp. was the most common GM, followed by Mg and Mh; the prevalence being 21.2, 5.2 and 1.5%, respectively. On the contrary, 10.7% samples showed positivity for Ureaplasma urealyticum (Uu) and 1.7% for Mh in MYCOFAST^® RevolutioN 2. The concordance rates between MYCOFAST^® RevolutioN 2 and PCR for Mh and Ureaplasma sp. were 97.7 and 84%, respectively. Considering PCR as gold standard, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of MYCOFAST^® RevolutioN 2 were 33.3, 98.8, 28.6, 98.9 and 37.7, 96.5, 74.4, 85.2% for Mh and Ureaplasma sp., respectively. The Uu and Mh isolates showed antibiotic-resistance ranging from 53%–58% and 71%–86%, respectively.

The prevalence of Ureaplasma sp. was high. Significant co-occurrence of GM was noticed with BV. MYCOFAST^® RevolutioN 2 had lower detection-rate than PCR, so a combination is suggested for wider diagnostic coverage.

The research reflects on status of prevalence of GM in adult females in Bahrain, and their co-occurrence with bacterial vaginosis. Diagnostic approach with combination of tests is suggested for wider coverage. The research has epidemiologic, diagnostic, and therapeutic implications.

This is the first report from the Kingdom of Bahrain reflecting on burden of GM from this geographic location. The diagnostic efficacy of MYCOFAST^® RevolutionN 2 test and polymerase chain reaction was evaluated for GM detection.

Escherichia coli 0157 is responsible for an emerging enteric disease which became a growing public health concern in 1996 with major outbreaks in Japan and Scotland. Unfortunately, the more common haemorrhagic colitis can at times develop into the haemolytic uraemic syndrome with associated renal disease which can lead to fatalities. It is now apparent that few bacterial cells are needed to spread infection and that cross‐contamination is therefore a significant problem. Although there are national programmes to investigate E. coli 0157 infection and gain new information on epidemiology, handwashing is seen as a very simple but effective approach to prevent transmission from contaminated material to food. We need to be made aware of the clinical importance of E. coli infection and how best we can bring it under control.

Application of the numerical method to the art of Medicine was regarded not as a “trivial ingenuity” but “an important stage in its development”; thus proclaimed Professor Bradford Hill, accepted as the father of medical statistics, a study still largely unintelligible to the mass of medical practitioners. The need for Statistics is the elucidation of the effects of multiple causes; this represents the essence of the statistical method and is most commendable. Conclusions reached empirically under statistical scrutiny have mistakes and fallacies exposed. Numerical methods of analysis, the mathematical approach, reveals data relating to factors in an investigation, which might be missed in empirical observation, and by means of a figure states their significance in the whole. A simplified example is the numerical analysis of food poisoning, which alone determines the commonest causative organisms, the commonest food vehicles and the organisms which affect different foods, as well as changes in the pattern, e.g., the rising incidence of S. agona and the increase of turkey (and the occasions on which it is served, such as Christmas parties), as a food poisoning vehicle. The information data enables preventive measures to be taken. The ever‐widening fields of Medicine literally teem with such situations, where complexities are unravelled and the true significance of the many factors are established. Almost every sphere of human activity can be similarly measured. Apart from errors of sampling, problems seem fewer and controversy less with technical methods of analysis then on the presentation and interpretation of figures, or as Bradford Hill states “on the application of common sense and on elementary rules of logic”.

Considers recent developments in bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and their relation to Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (CJD). Sheep scrapie is now known to be irrelevant to the cause of both BSE and CJD. The range of species of animals acquiring novel spongiform encephalopathies continues to broaden. The failure to find infectivity in many tissues of BSE cattle has been due to the use of an inappropriate and insensitive assay method. The occurrence of vertical transfer of BSE from dam to calf is now accepted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF), as shown by the recent removal from the human food chain of intestines and the thymus from young calves. During the last year, the probability that CJD is caused by BSE has increased.

Bambara groundnut is a hard-to-cook grain and this has limited its utilisation to some extent. However, the grain is a good source of phytochemicals with antioxidant properties. This study investigated the total phenol content, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial potentials of hot-water extract of four Bambara groundnuts differentiated by their seed coats (cream, black, maroon and brown).

Bambara grains were heated in water at a ratio 1:20 (w/v) and the grains brought to boiling in a controlled water bath. As soon as boiling started, the temperature was reduced to 90 °C to reduce the evaporation rate. The extracts were withdrawn within 30 min, which was chosen from a preliminary study where beyond this time, the extract was drying off and the amount of solution obtained was not sufficient for the initial run. Grain colour and composition and antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties of the extract were determined using standard methods.

Protein (20.57–26.31%) and carbohydrate (55.43–61.09%) were the major components of the grain. Grain type and boiling time generally affected the total phenolic content of the extract. Cream Bambara displayed substantially lower total phenolic content at all boiling times compared with the maroon, brown and black Bambara groundnuts. The total flavonoid contents and total phenolic contents of the Bambara groundnut extracts were dependent on the boiling time and type of grain. The extracts showed no activity against Candida albicans, but the maroon coat Bambara demonstrated a peak inhibition of 6.00 mm against Escherichia coli. The total phenolic, flavonoid contents and the antioxidant properties of the grains generally followed the order Maroon > Black > Brown.

This study has demonstrated the possibility of promoting the use of Bambara groundnut beyond the current level of usage by using simple processing method of boiling to extract phytochemicals with medicinal properties.

Of the many warnings of dangerous food given by the Government between 1988 and 1992, it is only with listeriosis that there is any evidence of improvement. The whole basis of Government action on BSE has now been shown to be flawed in that the extraordinarily optimistic hope that cattle would prove to be a dead‐end for the infection has been discredited. The chance of a large number of people succumbing from a BSE‐like illness next century is about 70 per cent. The salmonella in eggs problem is not solved because contaminated infected laying flocks have been replaced by further infected flocks. Intensive farming is beset by problems additional to that of microbial safety. These include evidence of reduced nutritional quality of the food, particularly of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Moist food processing and retailing still provide major risks to consumers because new legislation is too lax. Thus most cooked food can be kept indefinitely at temperatures of 50°C or 8°C. One bacterium which can grow at low temperatures is E. coli 0157, the incidence of which has increased during the last few years. This is transferred through food from cattle and causes acute gastro‐enteritis, followed by kidney failure, particularly in children.