Hospitals free from superbug for a year (From Cotswold Journal)

Hospitals free from superbug for a year

2:00pm Monday 21st January 2013 in News

COMMUNITY hospitals have had no cases of MRSA infection for more than a year – but have been battling other bug outbreaks.

The hospitals in Pershore and Evesham (along with the other Worcestershire community hospitals in Malvern, Tenbury and Bromsgrove) have had no incidents of MRSA since October 2011.

However, there have been nine cases of Clostridium difficile since April last year, a bug which causes diarrhoea and stomach cramps and can be fatal in more vulnerable patients.

Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust remains within its cap of 12 cases for the year from April 1.

Trust staff have also been battling cases of the winter diarrhoea and vomiting bug norovirus.

Sandra Brennan, director of quality at the trust, said at a meeting of its board that actions by ward staff and the infection control team in handling norovirus had been “exemplary” and ward closures kept to a minimum.

Mrs Brennan said if patients came to hospital with c.diff diagnosed within 48 hours, there was little the trust could do.

She said: “Clearly we take all infection control very seriously. We always review them to see if there is anything we can do differently.

“We are participating in a health economy wide review of c.diff. All NHS trusts, GPs, commissioners and care homes are looking at the issue). We have an external assessor coming in. That’s taking place next week to see if there is anything else we should be doing as a whole health economy.”

The review will look at issues such as antibiotic prescribing because antibiotics can cause c.diff.