Hospital 100 days clear of superbug

THE Royal Oldham Hospital has been free of infecting patients with the potentially fatal superbug MRSA for more than 100 days.

The Government ordered a crackdown on hospitals across the country amid a public outcry on the increasing number of patients catching the superbug while in hospital.

Figures are split between patients who go into the hospital already ill from the bacteria entering their bloodstream and those who catch it after they go into hospital.

Royal Oldham Hospital bosses say that since April, no-one has contracted the condition while in hospital.

The Health Protection Agency collects quarterly MRSA figures from NHS trusts.

It reveals a total of 17 cases from January to March at the four hospitals run by Pennine Acute Trust — the Royal Oldham Hospital, North Manchester General Hospital, Rochdale Infirmary and Fairfield Hospital, Bury.

That was the second lowest figure for three months from eight quarters dating back to April to June, 2006.

Then, the figure was 32, compared with 19 cases in the last three months of last year, and 14 (the lowest figure) from July to September, 2007.

In total, 966 cases were reported in England’s hospitals in the first three months of this year — an 11 per cent fall on the previous quarter.

And there was an even more dramatic 30 per cent fall in the number of cases reported nationally in the financial year of 2007/08 compared with the previous year.

Dr Paul Cook, chairman of the medical staff committee at the Royal Oldham Hospital, said it was good news, adding: “It’s nice to hear that measures taken such as handwashing by both staff and visitors have helped.

“Our usual level of hospital-acquired MRSA infection at the Royal Oldham was one or two patients a month, and sometimes it went up to four or five — these figures are significantly better than they were a year ago.”

Vic Crumbleholme, the trust’s associate director of nursing, highlighted the 29 fewer reports of MRSA in 2007/08 than in the previous year, representing a fall to 1.20 cases per 10,000 bed days from 1.66.

He said there was a 70 per cent fall in cases from April to June this year compared with the same period last year, and tests showed 60 per cent of those already had the condition when they were admitted.