Clash of NHS targets- MRSA and cash underfunding or clean hospitals
The government's NHS waiting targets and wish to tackle the spread of hospital acquired infections like MRSA are in direct conflict, according to a leading expert. Professor Hajo Grundmann, currently based at Groningham University Medical Centre in Holland, maps the incidence of MRSA across the European Union.
He has recently studied the recent outbreak of Clostridium difficile at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, which resulted in nine deaths and led to the area's coroner, Dr Nigel Chapman, drawing attention to the scale of the problem.
Professor Grundmann studied computer models of infection rates in the Nottingham hospital's intensive care unit and found during the winter period when bed occupancy rates increased so too did the transmission rates for MRSA.
MRSA
"With this model I went to the chief executive at the Queen's Medical Centre and showed him that by closing two beds in intensive care we could always be on top of any outbreak. We would effectively stop all hospital transmissions.
"But with waiting list targets this couldn't happen and so what we see are outbreaks which are difficult to bring under control.
"There is a direct conflict between the government's desire to bring down waiting times in hospitals and their wish to tackle the spread of hospital acquired infections."
It is thought that approximately 5,000 people a year die from a hospital acquired infection - a figure the government says has to be seen in the context of the 12m people treated every year by the NHS.
About 3% of healthy adults carry C. difficile and it is impossible for hospitals to keep it out, according to Dr Richard Slack, the consultant in communicable diseases for the East Midlands Health Protection Agency.
"The job therefore is to limit the spread of it. But with more than 50,000 cases in 2005 and the numbers rising all the time it was clear that the problem was getting worse rather than better.
"The other thing is that we're getting reports from colleagues up and down the country who are seeing an increasing number of patients who require major surgery, and some patients who are dying, of C. difficile."
Control
Managers at the Queen's Medical Centre will not say how long it took to bring the outbreak of C. Difficile under control, or how many patients were infected.
But the Nottingham Coroner, Dr Nigel Chapman, said he had seen a sharp rise in deaths from C. difficile to investigate.
Where he would normally expect to see two cases a year he has had nine deaths from the Queen's Medical Centre over a four-week period.
From:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6348163.stm
The scandal of thousands of preventable deaths every year in NHS hospitals through patients contracting MRSA, C Difficile and other superbugs is not going to improve until the govt is prepared to finally address the issue.
It means more money to reduce bed occupancy rates, thorough cleaning of the beds between use and constant hygiene on wards including the automatic washing of hands by staff between contact with every patient.
On Thu 11 Jan 07- Health Direct posted: NHS hospitals may never achieve MRSA superbug targets as the NHS is not on track to meet its MRSA target and perhaps never will, a leaked government memo says. In November 2004, then health secretary John Reid pledged MRSA rates would be halved by April 2008. But the memo, sent to ministers by a Department of Health official, said it would only be cut by a third by then. It also reportedly recommended ways to handle the news in the media. Dr Mark Enright, from Imperial College, said the target was "unrealistic".
He has recently studied the recent outbreak of Clostridium difficile at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, which resulted in nine deaths and led to the area's coroner, Dr Nigel Chapman, drawing attention to the scale of the problem.
Professor Grundmann studied computer models of infection rates in the Nottingham hospital's intensive care unit and found during the winter period when bed occupancy rates increased so too did the transmission rates for MRSA.
MRSA
"With this model I went to the chief executive at the Queen's Medical Centre and showed him that by closing two beds in intensive care we could always be on top of any outbreak. We would effectively stop all hospital transmissions.
"But with waiting list targets this couldn't happen and so what we see are outbreaks which are difficult to bring under control.
"There is a direct conflict between the government's desire to bring down waiting times in hospitals and their wish to tackle the spread of hospital acquired infections."
It is thought that approximately 5,000 people a year die from a hospital acquired infection - a figure the government says has to be seen in the context of the 12m people treated every year by the NHS.
About 3% of healthy adults carry C. difficile and it is impossible for hospitals to keep it out, according to Dr Richard Slack, the consultant in communicable diseases for the East Midlands Health Protection Agency.
"The job therefore is to limit the spread of it. But with more than 50,000 cases in 2005 and the numbers rising all the time it was clear that the problem was getting worse rather than better.
"The other thing is that we're getting reports from colleagues up and down the country who are seeing an increasing number of patients who require major surgery, and some patients who are dying, of C. difficile."
Control
Managers at the Queen's Medical Centre will not say how long it took to bring the outbreak of C. Difficile under control, or how many patients were infected.
But the Nottingham Coroner, Dr Nigel Chapman, said he had seen a sharp rise in deaths from C. difficile to investigate.
Where he would normally expect to see two cases a year he has had nine deaths from the Queen's Medical Centre over a four-week period.
From:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6348163.stm
The scandal of thousands of preventable deaths every year in NHS hospitals through patients contracting MRSA, C Difficile and other superbugs is not going to improve until the govt is prepared to finally address the issue.
It means more money to reduce bed occupancy rates, thorough cleaning of the beds between use and constant hygiene on wards including the automatic washing of hands by staff between contact with every patient.
On Thu 11 Jan 07- Health Direct posted: NHS hospitals may never achieve MRSA superbug targets as the NHS is not on track to meet its MRSA target and perhaps never will, a leaked government memo says. In November 2004, then health secretary John Reid pledged MRSA rates would be halved by April 2008. But the memo, sent to ministers by a Department of Health official, said it would only be cut by a third by then. It also reportedly recommended ways to handle the news in the media. Dr Mark Enright, from Imperial College, said the target was "unrealistic".
Labels: C difficile, MRSA, NHS targets
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