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Bug rules breached

Emilene White
1/11/2006

MRSA cases at Tameside Hospital last year were almost four times higher than targets set by bosses, it has emerged.

From July 2005 to June 2006, the hospital reported 47 cases, when the target was 13.

The figures come from a Department of Health report obtained by the Advertiser through the Freedom of Information Act.

It revealed that over the same period the monthly target was breached nine times.

The report states: "You have made reducing your numbers of MRSA bacteraemias a priority for the organisation. However, you continue to breach the agreed targets and thus diverge away from your MRSA improvement trajectory. You need to direct focus and implement an immediate recovery plan to get regain lost ground."

Criticisms included no screening of elective surgery patients, lack of clarity over how many staff had been trained in antibiotic prescribing, and 'myths' believed by some clinical staff around the cause and spread of MRSA, such as beds being too close together.

The hospital has responded with a raft of measures including screening all at-risk patients admitted as emergencies or for surgery.

At-risk groups include patients who have recently been in other hospitals, patients who have been transferred from nursing homes, and patients who have recently been inpatients.

If swabs show the presence of MRSA, patients are 'decolonised' by applying an antiseptic cream and wash over five days.

A hospital spokesman said: "The programme is designed to help to prevent patients becoming infected from bacteria carried on or in their own body and protect other patients with whom they may have contact directly or indirectly."