Rochdale Infirmary beating superbugs

Date published: 29/05/2008

Rochdale Infirmary has the lowest number of deaths in the Pennine Acute Trust involving Clostridium Difficile (C Diff) and the second lowest with MRSA recorded on their death certificate.

A new hospital superbug league from the Office of National Statistics revealed Fairfield General topped the C Diff tables with 26 cases, North Manchester had 23 cases, the Royal Oldham 21 with Rochdale Infirmary recording just 12 cases.

A total of 19 patients who died between 2002-06 in Rochdale had MRSA recorded, the Royal Oldham recorded 25 cases during the same period, North Manchester General saw 29 and Fairfield General in Bury had 15.

A total of 217 hospitals and one hospice in England and Wales featured in the report.

Topping the superbug table was the Royal United Hospital in Bath where 268 patients who died had either C diff or MRSA recorded on their death certificate.

The figures only reveal hospitals where infections were mentioned on death certificates, which does not mean patients died from the bugs, only that they had them at the time of their death.

A spokesman for Pennine Acute Trust said the figures did not show where the infection was acquired, higher number of deaths would be expected in larger establishments, and different establishments would see different risk levels.

He added: “The 2002-06 figures show that, for the establishments surveyed, the Royal Oldham was below the national average for the percentage involving C.Difficile and was in line with the national average for the percentage involving MRSA.

“As a trust, we are putting a great deal of effort into infection prevention and control. We have recorded a 25 per cent year-on-year reduction in MRSA cases and our MRSA rate per 10,000 bed days in 2006-07 was lower than the national average.

“In 2006-07 we were among Trusts with the lowest rates of C.Difficile in the North-West.

“Our 2007-08 figures were below the trajectory set by Government and were 24 per cent down on the previous year.”

The trust has introduced recent ongoing hygiene initiatives such as a Clean Your Hands campaign and “bare below the elbow” policy for staff.

Last year, it secured a £550,000 grant from the Department of Health to support a specialist team of five senior nurses who help infection prevention staff and ward staff.

The trust recently completed a major deep clean of wards.