Hospitals are falling behind their targets on superbugs (From Worcester News)

Hospitals are falling behind their targets on superbugs

4:00pm Saturday 27th June 2009 in

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HOSPITAL chiefs in Worcestershire have admitted they have fallen behind the target for tackling deadly superbug MRSA.

Since April there have been five cases of MRSA bloodstream infections at the county’s three main hospitals, including at Worcestershire Royal in Worcester.

This is two-and-a-half times more cases of the antibiotic-resistant superbug than Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust should have so soon into the financial year.

The Government stipulates that the trust should have no more than 15 cases each year, a target it hit last year with only 11 cases.

Hospital bosses only count MRSA if it is found in the bloodstream of a patient, not on their skin because about one in three people have the bug on their skin. Two cases of MRSA in May were spotted within 48 hours of admission, which hospital bosses say means the patient was already infected before they came to hospital.

If they become infected after 48 hours (the incubation period for the bug), health leaders accept that the patient became infected in hospital.

Helen Blanchard, director of infection prevention and control, delivered a report to the trust board at Kidderminster Hospital.

She said: “Both cases in May occurred within 48 hours of admission and are not attributable to the trust. The trust is in discussion with the Health Protection Agency in respect of having two cases removed from the trust’s total as there is evidence they should appropriately be reassigned to other trusts.”

The hospital trust is still below its 100 per cent MRSA screening target.

Health bosses were supposed to screen every non-emergency patient by April, but in June the figure remained at about 96 per cent.

The screening costs about £300,000 a year even though hospital bosses have admitted that very few elective patients are at risk of becoming infected.

Health chiefs plan to start screening emergency patients in November, which also involves taking swabs.

Phil Milligan, chief operating officer, has already said the screening of A&E patients is more likely to save lives than the screening of elective patients because emergency patients are more vulnerable and, because of possible wounds, more prone to MRSA infection.

There have been 59 recorded cases of Clostridium difficile since April across Worcestershire’s three main hospitals, although not all of these are classed as “healthcare-acquired infections”.

The trust distinguishes between people who have C.diff on admission and those who develop symptoms two days after admission, which means they probably contracted the bug in hospital.