Hospital staff miss superbug checks

Date published: 23 May 2008

The body that runs the Rochdale Infirmary has come under fire for not screening its staff for superbugs.

Research by the Lib Dems has revealed that Pennine Acute Trust — which runs hospitals in Rochdale, Oldham, Bury and North Manchester — does not screen its staff for C difficile or MRSA.

And the Lib Dems further claim that the number of cases of C difficile and MRSA involving staff are not recorded.

However, Pennine does screen many groups of patients for MRSA, including those who have previously tested positive, orthopaedic, vascular implant, inter-hospital transfer patients, those from residential homes, major abdominal surgery patients and neonatal transfers.

And patients are isolated in single rooms if they are found to have either disease.

The information also revealed that between April, 2006, and March, 2007, 36 wards had to be closed across Pennine Acute’s hospitals because of outbreaks of C difficile and the diarrhoea bug Norovirus.

Claire Chadwick, the trust’s lead nurse for infection prevention, said: “We follow national NHS guidance on dealing with outbreaks of infection and if this changes we will respond as appropriate.

“We do have a policy to isolate patients following an outbreak of C difficile and isolation wards are set up as necessary.

“If single rooms are not available, strict cohort nursing practices are implemented. The trust takes infection prevention and control very seriously and, while we are never complacent, we are proud of the work our staff have done.”

An ongoing, “clean your hands”, campaign has seen more than 4,500 staff given additional handwashing training. And a “bare below the elbows” policy is designed to make it easier for staff to clean their hands properly.

Last year the trust secured a £550,000 government grant to support a specialist team of five senior nurses to help infection prevention staff and ward staff. A deep clean has also just been completed.

Ms Chadwick added that handwashing and the use of alcohol handrub is the single most important precaution that staff, patients and visitors can take against healthcare-associated infections.

Lib Dem health spokesman Norman Lamb said the information showed the Government was failing to tackle the war on superbugs.