Hospitals hit target on infection

HOSPITAL chiefs at Warrington have achieved nationally set targets for the MRSA infection – cutting the number of cases by 64 per cent in two years.
There were just 12 cases of the infection at Warrington and Halton hospitals in the year ending in March.
Figures show that the hospitals, working in partnership with Primary Care, have reduced the number of cases of MRSA by a third on the previous year (2007-2008) when there were 18 in total.
This represents a 64 per cent drop when compared to figures from two years ago (2006-2007) when 33 cases of MRSA were reported at the trust.
The trust board have set an even more challenging internal target of just eight hospital acquired cases of MRSA over the next 12 months as they bid to reduce numbers even further.
At the start of the month it was also revealed that the hospitals met the legal requirements to be registered by the new Care Quality Commission based on the systems in place to prevent, detect, treat and control infection.
More than 20 NHS trusts across the country did not meet the challenging new standards.
The trust has taken steps over the last year such as putting screening in place for MRSA for all patients having planned surgery.
Patients who are naturally colonised with MRSA can then be identified in advance and steps taken to reduce the risk of any infection occurring.
This has complemented other infection control measures such as improved andwashing, ongoing auditing of compliance with infection policies, a ‘bare below the elbows’ uniform policy and strict guidelines on restricting the use of antibiotics that can trigger infections like C-Difficile.
Much work has been carried out by the hospitals in partnership with GPs and other healthcare providers in the community around antibiotic usage. Numbers of C-Difficile infections at the trust have also fallen dramatically over the last year. There were 112 hospital acquired cases of C-Difficile (an average of around nine per month over the year) compared to 372 in the previous 12 months in 2006/2007 (an average of 31 cases a month).
Trust chief executive Catherine Beardshaw said: “We hope that meeting our challenging target around MRSA numbers is a sign to local people about the improvements we have made at their hospitals.
“We have been working incredibly hard to meet these targets with our partners. We’ve made good progress and now have a low level of infection but we can still reduce the levels further and that is our aim for this year.”