MRSA Action UK: National reductions on MRSA and Clostridium difficile, but some Trusts are still not up to the mark

MRSA Action UK: National reductions on MRSA and Clostridium difficile, but some Trusts are still not up to the mark

MRSA Action UK: National reductions on MRSA and Clostridium difficile, but some Trusts are still not up to the mark

MRSA Action UK hoped to see far fewer people contracting MRSA and Clostridium difficile than is currently being reported. Every person who suffers from an infection is one too many. It is heartening to see a downward trend, but we believe this is not happening quickly enough.

The controls for MRSA and Clostridium difficile are different and there still appears to be a great emphasis on the use of alcohol gel, it cannot be emphasised enough that it is important to use soap and water to reduce the carriage of Clostridium difficile spores. With fourteen Hospital Trusts still reporting Clostridium difficile cases in three figures in the last quarter there is a need to review if policies are working.

Antimicrobial stewardship is vital to halt the resistance to ever-evolving bacteria and to reduce the incidence of Clostridium difficile. Environmental cleaning, sufficient isolation facilities and the use of technologies to reduce the burden of bacteria in our healthcare settings must be invested in if the Government is serious about saving lives.

We are pleased to see that data is going to be published monthly, we hope to see the data being used to manage performance. Some Hospital Trusts are making excellent use of data to drive performance by publishing these on wards and at hospital entrances. We would like to see the use of the surgical site infection data being published in the same way, as we know that MRSA bacteraemias account for around only 6% of all healthcare infections.

We want to see a strong cross-party commitment to putting the investment into keeping our healthcare facilities safe.

A zero tolerance to infections must be universal, not just from Board to Ward, but with our Health Ministers and their colleagues in the Treasury, cutting investment in the NHS would cost many lives, we want the message from No.10 to be “zero tolerance to infections”, to do that there must be continued investment.