Stopping MRSA at the front door of the hospital

Link: BBC NEWS | Health | Stopping MRSA at the front door.

For all the extra funding for cleaning, infection control nurses and hand gels, the best defence against MRSA is to prevent it entering the hospital in the first place. And that, more or less, is what the hospital is trying to achieve. Always a chance Microbiologist Peter Wilson says: "If we can make sure patients do not have the infection on their skin when they come in for treatment, the risk of them getting an MRSA blood infection reduces from 40% to about one in 30. "There is always the chance that they could get it from the hospital environment or from visitors, but by ensuring they don't have it on them you are giving them every chance." The hospital, along with the other units in the trust, which includes a specialist heart centre, was one of the first to introduce mass MRSA screening in 2006. Peter Wilson The risk of them getting an MRSA blood infection reduces from 40% to about one in 30 Peter Wilson, microbiologist Currently, all elective and emergency surgery patients are tested. And from later this year that will be extended to all in-patients - three years ahead of the government's deadline for the NHS.