Hospital is winning the superbug battle

Date published: 28/04/2008

Rochdale Infirmary has bucked the national trend by seeing a drop in MRSA cases.

There has been a slight rise in occurrences of the potentially deadly bug across England after months of decline, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

Data shows a 0.6 per cent increase in cases during October to December, 2007, compared with July to September, 2007.

Dr Georgia Duckworth, from the HPA, said the figures represented a plateau and it was hoped it was not indicative of a levelling trend.

But Pennine Acute Trust, which runs hospitals in Rochdale, Oldham, Bury and North Manchester, said its own figures showed a reduction in cases.

Marian Carroll, the trust’s executive director of nursing, said: “Our own, more up-to-date figures show that we are making significant progress in reducing MRSA cases. There were 76 across the trust between April, 2007, and February, 2008, which represents a 25 per cent reduction on the previous year.

“To set this in context, those 76 cases were out of 551,865 bed days.

“As an overall rate, it equalled 1.34 cases per 10,000 bed days compared with 1.72 the previous year.”

The HPA also reported a nationwide 8 per cent drop in figures for the Clostridium Difficile (C.diff) bug to 9,872 cases in patients aged 65 and over between October and December, 2007, compared with the previous quarter.

It warned that changes to how NHS trusts report their C.diff figures could have influenced the result, as some data may be incomplete.

Pennine Acute Trust, which recently undertook a deep clean of its wards, said its figures showed a 19 per cent reduction in cases of C.diff in 2007-08 compared with the same period last year.

Mrs Carroll said: “The trust takes infection prevention and control very seriously and is undertaking a great deal of work to promote good hand hygiene among staff, visitors and patients.

“This includes an ongoing ‘Clean Your Hands’ campaign that has already seen more than 4,500 staff given additional handwashing training and the introduction of a bare below the elbows policy which is designed to make it easier for staff to clean their hands properly.

“Of course we are never complacent and would once again urge members of the public to clean their hands during any visit to a relative or friend and follow the visitor regulations.

“If anyone is unsure of what to do, then simply ask a member of staff.”