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Link: SocietyGuardian.co.uk
Patricia Hewitt starts with a promise of militancy!
Hospital visitors may have to wear hairnets, clean overalls and take precautions such as walking through a tray of disinfectant before entering the building in the NHS's drive to reverse the spread of the MRSA superbug, the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, warned yesterday. In her first speech since succeeding John Reid last week, Ms Hewitt compared the experience of visiting top-class food factories in her former job as trade and industry secretary with conditions in the NHS. "I find it extraordinary that we have tougher laws and higher standards for hygiene in our food factories than we do for our hospitals. It is extraordinary and not acceptable," she said on a day when doctors and health unions attacked her plans to expand the role of private sector health providers to meet NHS needs.
Link: BBC NEWS.
First Minister Rhodri Morgan has accused Conservative leader Michael Howard of scaring patients with "unscientific piffle" over MRSA. Mr Morgan also said Mr Howard was "hiding behind" the death of his mother-in-law from the hospital infection when challenged about it. The first minister made the attack in an interview with website ePolitix.com. Conservative Welsh assembly member Alun Cairns called the comments "outrageous" and "underhand". During the interview, Mr Morgan labelled the Tory campaign for cleaner hospitals "absurd", saying it was "all about simply telling lies to to the British people about MRSA levels". "It is pure scaremongering without a shred of scientific evidence behind it," he added.
Link: BBC NEWS
But the Conservatives in turn accused Labour of "negative" tactics. "Tony Blair has lost touch. He wants the issues that matter to be swept under the carpet. It makes him angry when he is held to account for his failure and will do all he can to divert people's attention," said the Conservative health spokesperson, Andrew Lansley. Health Secretary John Reid, appearing with the prime minister, accused the Conservatives of a "systematic deception". "The Tories want to traduce and run down the NHS in the public perception because actually they want to run down the NHS." In a speech at his constituency in Folkestone, Mr Howard said: "We sent out a letter and it referred to the MRSA rates in the local hospital trust when it should have referred to the local hospital trusts. "And that was a mistake and I'm very sorry we made that mistake. "Mr Blair may be angry about the omission of a letter 's'. I'm angry about the 5,000 people who die every year from hospital-acquired infections in our country, that's what I'm angry about."
Link: BBC NEWS.
Mr Reid was speaking as a summit on ways to combat MRSA was due to begin. "Those who say it's about government targets are the same as those who say its all about dirty hospitals," he said. "It isn't just about dirty hospitals. In some of our clean hospitals - which get good clean ratings - there is still a spread of MRSA." Thousands of people who visited hospitals were carrying MRSA and always had done, he said. It was just that MRSA had not always been resistant to antibiotics. Mr Reid pointed out that resistance had increased to 31% from 4% in the five years before Labour came to power.
Link: Portsmouth Today
THE hospital superbug was at the centre of the local General Election campaign today after Health Secretary John Reid blamed Tories for the outbreak. On a visit to Portsmouth's Queen Alexandra Hospital he refused to accept responsibility for the crisis. He claimed the Tories were to blame for cutting back on hospital hygiene while they were in power. His defence came as Tories launched an election onslaught around the bug. In full-page adverts in newspapers, including The News, they blamed Prime Minister Tony Blair for 5,000 deaths caused by dirty hospitals.
Link: Labour
"Latest figures show MRSA rates have halved since 2001 in the NHS hospital Michael Howard visited today, thanks to the hard work of NHS staff supported by increased investment from the Labour government" "The Tories did not and can not tackle MRSA. "The Tories failed to tackle MRSA while in office. The Tories only idea for tackling MRSA, allowing nurses to shut wards, has been slammed by nurses themselves. You cannot tackle the superbug with a soundbite. "As Geraldine Cunningham the Director of Clinical Leadership at the Royal College of Nursing, says of their plans: 'It's much more complex than just closing a ward, actually there're always patients in wards if you moved them you'd spread infection'.
Link: East Anglian Daily Times news.
THE family of MRSA victim Luke Day fear Prime Minister Tony Blair is not taking the fight against the killer bug seriously enough. Luke's father Kevin Fenton and grandmother Julie Fenton voiced their concerns after Mr Blair appeared in a live television debate about the health service. In the Sky News special yesterday, the Prime Minister was grilled by members of the public about the MRSA issue and fended off allegations that the Government had covered-up the true extent of the problem. He stressed that MRSA - methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus - was still rare and spoke of his desire to knock the bug “out of the system” But the Fentons, from Woodbridge, said they were not reassured by Mr Blair's comments and urged the Government to take more action to combat the MRSA problem.
Link: sundaymail.
MOST Scots would desert the NHS for private hospitals if they could afford the bills, a Sunday Mail poll reveals today. And the majority reckon the service has deteriorated since Labour took power in 1997. The survey reveals a shocking lack of confidence in the NHS. Key factors are hospital waiting times and a huge increase in hospital infections such as MRSA.
Link: Telegraph.
Sir Liam wanted the Bill to become law in the current session of Parliament to make hospitals statutorily obliged to enforce hygiene standards. He called for fines on dirty hospitals "to create a deterrent to killing and harming patients with MRSA and other infections". Yesterday Mr Reid said he had personally requested the memo from Sir Liam and that he was not legislating immediately because he wanted to see if the new law could be extended to care and nursing homes.
Link: Guardian Unlimited.
Hospital chief executives could be held legally accountable if they fail to adopt tough new hygiene measures designed to tackle the MRSA "superbug", the Government said. Health Secretary John Reid said he would be consulting on proposals for a statutory Hygiene Code covering hospitals, care homes and nursing homes in a bid to drive out the deadly infection. Following a meeting with health and social care inspectors, he said ministers were considering "enabling" legislation giving them the power to introduce a statutory code if necessary.
Link: Guardian Unlimited
Health Secretary John Reid has dismissed claims the government failed to act on a warning it needed to pass emergency laws to ensure hospitals controlled the MRSA superbug. Britain's most senior doctor warned five months ago that emergency legislation was needed to enforce hygiene standards in hospitals to prevent them "killing and harming" patients with the MRSA superbug, it was reported. The Daily Telegraph said the government failed to act on recommendations made five months ago by Prof Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer for England, for a Health Care Hygiene Act in this session of Parliament to ensure that hygiene standards could be enforced. (Reid) Responding to the claims, he said: "It's complete rubbish to suggest the Government is doing nothing on this issue. "I announced that I am exploring with Health and Social Care Inspectors the prospect of extending to hospitals, care homes and nursing homes a statutory Hygiene Code.
Link: The Sun
The angry PM said: “The Tory plan is clear — spread disillusion and cynicism. Run Britain down.” He blamed past Tory governments for longer waiting lists, cuts in doctors’ training places and a halt to hospital building. He also accused the Tories of letting MRSA run amok in hospitals. He said: “MRSA didn’t arrive on May 2, 1997. It burgeoned in the Tory years.” Then he issued a challenge to voters by saying: “If you believe the NHS today is worse than it was when Mr Howard and the Tories ran it, don’t vote for me — vote for him.”
Link: Mrsa: 28 Feb 2005: Written answers
Lindsay Hoyle (Chorley, Lab) Hansard source
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the steps which are being taken to fight MRSA" >MRSA at (a) Chorley and (b) Preston Hospital.Melanie Johnson (Welwyn Hatfield, Lab) Hansard source
The Department takes the issue of healthcare associated infections very seriously and has told the national health service that infection control should be at the heart of good management and clinical practice. The Department has set a target to reduce methicillin resistant "Staphylococcus aureus" by 50 per cent., by 2008 from an April 2005 baseline. The National Patient Safety Agency launched the first national hand hygiene campaign, "cleanyourhands" in September 2004. Commitments in the Chief Medical Officer's publication, "Winning Ways" and the Department's action plan, "Towards Cleaner Hospitals and Lower Rates of Infection" and the NHS's "Matron's Charter" have focused on evidence-based actions to reduce infections.
Link: The Sun Newspaper Online
TONY Blair was slammed last night for claiming Britain’s hospital superbug crisis is no worse than in Europe. The PM failed to admit the UK’s record on killer MRSA is the POOREST in Europe. He tried to calm fears after figures showed the problem has doubled in four years. Mr Blair said the incidence of all infections in hospitals is on a par with European levels. But figures show 44 per cent of all bloodstream bugs in UK hospital patients are MRSA. Only Greece is as bad — also on 44 per cent — while it has been virtually beaten in Holland and Denmark, where the rate is just one per cent. The PM said: “If you look at hospital-acquired infections figures, they are not that different from any other European country.”
Link: PM's Press Conference - 25 February 2005.
There are 11 million people that go in and out of our hospitals every year. The figures, the 900 cases a year, actually of those I think it is 321 as the Chief Nursing Officer was saying have probably died directly as a result of MRSA. If you look at the hospital acquired infection figures, that is for all hospital acquired infections, actually they are not different from many other European countries. And the next point to make is this, that it is important we find out why these particular infections have become resistant to the antibiotics with which they are being treated, and it is also important that we introduce the measures on cleanliness that we are doing. But there is something else that we should talk about today, given the report on cancer patients. Today in 2005 there are 25,000 a year fewer deaths from heart disease, there have been since 1997 33,000 fewer deaths from cancer, today's figures on screening for breast cancer indicate now there are 11,000, a significant increase, of people whose breast cancer has been detected and therefore being able to be treated at an early stage through this screening programme. Now all I say to people about MRSA is not to diminish its significance, but to put it in context and then to say there are fantastic things also happening in our National Health Service of which we can be proud. And I think otherwise what we end up doing is giving people I think somewhat of an unbalanced perspective as to the pluses and minuses of today's National Health Service.
Link: Morning press briefing from 24 February.
It was an issue which the Government took very seriously and John Reid had set out in the last six months new measures that were being taken to address the issue. The figures were for 2003 so they would not in any way reflect these new measures. The important thing about these figures was that because they had more detailed information, it allowed us to try and identify the range of measures that would help to counter it. There was no single cause of MSRA that you could just address. It confirmed what we knew, that this was a serious issue, but it also underlined the rationale for the series of measures which John Reid had introduced.
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)
