Dr Meda says: “If you want to control these bugs it has to be in hospital settings, because waste water is a super reservoir for these superbugs.
“Changing practices that we are pioneering at Wexham Park could be one of the ways we start to win the battle against these bugs.”
The hospital says its initial surveillance shows that removing sinks hasn’t compromised anyone’s safety, while it has started to reduce many types of hospital-acquired infections.
Hospital bosses are so convinced that they’re onto something, they are now rolling out their new “water-safe” approach to other wards.
And last week a medical team from Japan flew over to see what they could learn from Wexham’s project.
While the government’s NHS Hospital programme, which is looking at how it can build more than 40 new hospitals over the next decade or so, is also showing an interest.
The Slough hospital’s microbiologists hope their work could act as a blueprint for the wider NHS.