MRSA infections go beyond targets

NHS Oldham report
NHS Oldham has failed at keeping MRSA infections to a minimum of eight in a year, with 11 cases so far in the year from April 2010-March 2011.

However, board members were told that only two cases were directly attributed to primary care run by NHS Oldham with the remaining nine cases picked up from hospitals across Greater Manchester.

When compiling figures, NHS Oldham must include all Oldham-registered patients who have acquired an infection, even if they have contracted the bug outside of the district.

Chief executive Shauna Dixon said: “There needs to be an understanding that we have an allocation of cases that are not directly related.”

In terms of swine flu, there were 187 confirmed cases and 12 associated deaths reported within the Pennine Acute Hospital Trust area (Oldham, Rochdale, North Manchester and Bury). The majority of the deaths were associated with people aged under 65 who had other underlying medical conditions.

Board members were also told that there had been outbreaks of diarrhoea and vomiting in four residential homes in Oldham in January and February.

One of the homes had two confirmed cases of Norovirus.