Hand-washing

I recently read a review about 2 books written by a surgeon named 'Atul Gawande'.I decided to buy the books and after 2 weeks of persistence managed to end up with a book called 'Better-A surgeon's notes on performance'.The book deals with a lot of aspects of health care(American-not surprisingly!).
One chapter is about handwashing or the lack of it.
The author describes how clinicians ignore to wash their hands after examining every patient.
As far as India is concerned,this problem is more rampant.I don't know about the central institutes but as far as Govt hospitals are concerned,there won't be any bedside disinfectants.You either have to find a tap & wash ur hands with soap or use spirit which is unpleasant.
When I was working in the breast & endocrine unit in Portsmouth,one patient had complained to the nurses about the fact that I & a colleague of mine(incidentally a Sardarji) failed to wash our hands after seeing each patient.This had irritated me no end.
The problem in India is mindboggling.It is difficult to find disinfectants for such large hospitals and there is no guarantee that the solution will not be mishandled.So,should the doctors pay for it out of their own pockets?
I am sure if we adopt this simple measure in our wards,we can prevent a lot of cross-infections.