Link: NHS at 60: What patients really want - Telegraph.
A survey for the Patients Association found infection rates and shortages of staff in hospitals were the most serious concern for 60 per cent of patients. Over the past decade, the number of deaths linked to MRSA has risen fivefold, with latest figures showing the superbug was mentioned on 1,652 death certificates in 2006. Deaths linked to C. difficile have risen even faster, with 6,480 in the same year.
Link: Row over Conquest's MRSA-free claim - Hastings Today - Back to Home Page.
A widow whose husband died from MRSA at the Conquest has hit out at claims the hospital is free of the superbug. Marion Ham, whose husband David died aged 60 in October 2006, has rejected East Sussex Hospital Trust's statement that no cases of MRSA have been recorded at either the Conquest or Eastbourne District General Hospital in the last three months. "This is completely and utterly untrue," she said. Mrs Ham, whose husband was a special constable in the Hastings area for 15 years, has criticised the trust's policy to only record MRSA cases if the bug is found in the patient's blood. "The Government, through the Department of Health instructs trusts to, it seems, only record blood borne MRSA. "Yet MRSA attacks tissue, organs and joints without mercy and doesn't always show in blood cultures. "Because of recording practices, it took me seven months hard effort to get MRSA recorded on my husbands death certificate. Why should I have had to fight the system to get justice at a time when my grief could have enveloped me?"
Link: Rejoice Few Will Get Mrsa (from Oxford Mail).
I read an astonishing statement from a spokesman of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust about the falling rates of Clostridium Difficile - "Super bugs are not cause for concern, only a small fraction of patients who contact C Diff will die . . ." (The Oxford Times, May 30). The number reported to have died in the five years to 2006 was 111. How delighted will be the families of those who die this year? They will rejoice that their beloved are only a small fraction. In parts of Europe, infection rates are minimal. Should there be a focus group thanking the trust for these deaths? advertisement As a former victim of MRSA, I will join if only to try and raise awareness of the trust's arrogance and hypocrisy.
Ben Beaumont, Dora Carr Close, Oxford
See note below from hospital clarifying this quote
Link: Patients' shock at hospital's MRSA claim - Eastbourne Today.
RELATIVES of patients who developed a superbug at Eastbourne District General Hospital are shocked by the NHS trust's claim that it is MRSA-free. Eric Long, whose wife Angela was diagnosed with MRSA on April 23, read a report in the Herald on May 23 in which an East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust infection specialist said there had been no MRSA cases in two-and-a-half months. He said, "I thought, ADVERTISEMENT somebody is telling lies." It has now emerged that the trust does not include MRSA 'colonisation' in its figures. If a patient has the bug in their body they will not be included in hospital-produced statistics. If it is found in a blood test and infection is suspected they will. Eric Long's wife was found to have MRSA almost five weeks after being transferred to the DGH from a neurological centre in Haywards Heath having broken her neck falling down the stairs. Mr Long believes she contracted it because she was not cared for properly in the Seaford Four ward. He said, "I think my wife was in the hospital and she came out worse than she went in." A Mrs Bradley also contacted the Herald to say, "My family and I were horrified to read the report in your newspaper stating that the DGH had been MRSA free for the last two-and -a-half months. "Our father was operated on in the hospital on April 21 and swabbed after the operation for MRSA. He contracted MRSA on April 27 and unfortunately he passed away on May 4 due to MRSA pneumonia contracted in the DGH." Poppy Bunn also was certain her 70-year-old sister, who did not wish to be named, picked up the antibiotic-resistant bug in the DGH. Her sister was informed she had MRSA by Cuckmere Ward nurses in April but, according to Mrs Bunn, was not isolated from other patients due to a lack of beds.
Link: BBC NEWS | England | New screening scheme to cut MRSA.
All in-patients are to be screened for MRSA at two hospitals in Middlesbrough and North Yorkshire. South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust board has voted to pilot the scheme on some wards from September. It will then be rolled out to all in- patients at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough and the Friarage in Northallerton by March. The screening programme could be widened to include emergency admissions by 2011.
Link: Hampstead and Highgate Express - Grim toll of superbug deaths in hospitals.
HOSPITALS in the area are struggling in the fight against killer superbugs on the wards. Both the Royal Free in Hampstead and St Mary's in Paddington have fared poorly in a new report from the Office of National Statistics. St Mary's has one of the highest rates in the country for patient deaths involving the superbugs MRSA and Clostridium difficile. The report reveals 61 patients died after contracting C difficile from 2002 to 2006, while 32 patients died from MRSA in the same period. The figures rank the Praed Street hospital in the worst five per cent of more than 1,000 institutions in England and Wales, including hospitals, hospices and nursing homes. During the same time, The Royal Free saw 39 deaths from C difficile and 30 from MRSA, while the Whittington Hospital in Highgate had 33 deaths from C difficile and 22 with MRSA, and University College London Hospital in Euston had 18 from C difficile and 10 from MRSA. But the chairman of the National Concern for Healthcare Infections patient group, Graham Tanner, feared the figures were underestimated by at least a third.
Link: 31 patients died with superbugs - News - Rochdale Observer.
NEW figures have revealed that 180 patients died after contracting hospital superbugs at the region’s four biggest hospitals between 2002 and 2006. Eighty two patients died after contracting C.difficile and there were 98 fatal cases of MRSA, according to a report by the Office for National Statistics. The study revealed that in that time 12 patients died after contracting C.difficile at Rochdale Infirmary, and 19 with MRSA. Pennine Acute NHS Hospitals Trust, which runs Rochdale Infirmary, Royal Oldham, Fairfield and North Manchester, defended the figures and said that it was working hard to reduce the number of hospital-acquired infections. A spokesman said: "We note the findings of this report, which makes reference to MRSA and C.difficile on death certificates. This does not necessarily mean that they were the underlying cause of death. "As a Trust, we are putting a great deal of effort into infection prevention and control. We have recorded a 25 per cent year-on-year reduction in MRSA cases and our MRSA rate per 10,000 bed days in 2006-07 was lower than the national average.
Link: Hospital Cuts Superbug Deaths (from Wiltshire Times).
LATEST figures show that that deaths at the Royal United Hospital in Bath connected with so-called super bugs have fallen dramatically. Statistics from the Office for National Statistics show deaths involving MRSA and Clostridium difficile fell by half in 2007, compared to the previous year. The hospital recorded 49 deaths in 2007 where Clostridium difficile was noted on the death certificate as either the primary cause, or contributory factor. advertisement Of those, six deaths were directly attributable to Cdiff.
Link: Evening News 24 - Hospital bosses hit back at MRSA figures.
Bosses at Norfolk's flagship hospital have today hit back at a government report which ranked it as having the ninth highest death rate from MRSA. For the first time ever, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has highlighted the hospitals in the country with the highest numbers of deaths linked to the superbug. The Norfolk and Norwich Hospital (NNUH) was placed ninth in the table, with 65 deaths linked to the disease between 2002 and 2006. However, today hospital bosses defended the figures, which they claim do not take into account the size of the hospital, the number of patients its treats and the complexities each case. Meanwhile, they highlighted the good work that has gone on at the facility to tackle superbugs in the two years since these figures relate to.
Link: Sussex Hospitals Miss Mrsa Targets (from The Argus).
Hospitals across Sussex have failed to hit tough targets to reduce the numbers of the potentially fatal superbug MRSA. Every major hospital reported more MRSA cases than they were aiming for between April 2007 and March this year, although officials say overall numbers were still lower than the year before. Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust reported 66 cases, well above its planned target of 43. East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, which covers Eastbourne District General Hospital and the Conquest in St Leonards had 53 cases, more than double its target of 24, while Worthing and Southlands NHS Trust had 26 against a target of 12.
A short introduction from Dave Roberts
This 12 minute introduction will help you grasp the key facts and the key issues surrounding drug resistant staph aureus (mersa, mursa)
