Praise for local NHS Trusts as number of superbug reports

12.00.00am GMT Thu 1st Nov 2007

Local MP and Liberal Democrat health spokesperson, Sandra Gidley, has today praised local NHS trusts after statistics released by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) reveal that the numbers of reports of cases of MRSA and clostridium difficile, commonly known as c difficile, have shown a steady pattern of decrease.

Commenting, Sandra Gidley said

"I am wholly impressed by the work of our local hospital Trusts to reduce the cases of MRSA and c difficile. Many patients are concerned about catching one of these infections so I hope they find these figures reassuring. I have nothing but praise for the staff at these trusts who are dedicated to maintaining the highest level of care for their patients.

That is not to say that there is no room for improvement. If the staff continue to keep up the good work, I have no doubt that the number of reported cases of MRSA and c difficile will continue to fall and in the long run, ensure that our hospitals are safer places to be."

Mandatory surveillance of MRSA in April 2001 and of c difficile in January 2004, were introduced in a bid to drive down the increasing numbers of these infections throughout the 1990s. As a result, mandatory surveillance has encouraged NHS Trusts to develop and implement systems to prevent and control the number of cases of MRSA and c difficile.

Impressively, Southampton University Hospital NHS Trust has demonstrated a significant decrease in the number of reported cases of MRSA between April-June 2006 in which there were 15 cases reported and April-June 2007 in which there were only 6 reported cases. Furthermore, Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust has shown a consistently low number of reported cases of MRSA over the past year, with only 3 or 4 cases reported each quarter.

In patients aged between 2-64 years, Southampton University Hospital NHS Trust has shown a general pattern of decrease in the number of reported cases of c difficile, falling from 219 between April and June 2006 to just 45 cases between April and June 2007.

Within the same quarters, Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust continues this trends in demonstrating an impressive decrease in the number of reported cases from 40 cases in 2006 down to a mere 7 cases in 2007.

Notes to editors

Access to data from:

http://www.hpa.org.uk/infections/topics_az/hai/Mandatory_Results.htm

Overall, data collected from 171 acute NHS trusts between April 2007 and June 2007 shows that there were 1,303 reports of MRSA. This represents a 10% decrease in the number of cases reported for the last quarter, January 2007 -March 2007.

With regard to c difficile, 13,660 cases in patients aged 65 years or over were reported from 167 Trusts between April and June 2007. This represents a 13% reduction on the count for the previous quarter, January to March 2007.