Hospitals winning superbug battle

Hospitals across the Black Country and Staffordshire are winning the war against superbugs MRSA and C.Diff, latest figures revealed today.

Stringent hygiene measures, including the isolation of patients and the deep cleaning of hospital wards, have helped reduce levels of sickness.

MRSA has been particularly well contained. Walsall Manor Hospital has had not a single case this financial year and Sandwell General Hospital has had only one case of the infection since January.

Dudley's Russells Hall meanwhile has had two cases since the start of the financial year.

Mid Staffordshire Foundation NHS Trust, which looks after Stafford and Cannock Chase, also had only one case.

C.Diff had higher rates, with 75 cases in Dudley, 47 in Sandwell, 38 at the Manor and 21 in Staffordshire.

Jessamy Kinghorn, spokeswoman for Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust which also looks after City and Rowley Regis hospitals, said: "The figures for both superbugs are very low. We have become more effective at isolating patients who are suspected of C.Diff and use more vigorous screening.

"We still feel we could get the figure down more but we are heading in the right direction. Our target for this year is 109 cases or less."

The Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said infection rates had been reducing over the last two years. For the year 2010/11, there were 82 cases of C.Diff in the borough – 27 per cent below the original objective of no more than 113.

Spokeswoman Liz Abbiss said: "We have continuously monitored all cases and put measures in place to try and reduce further cases. Some of the actions we have taken are to review each case to establish if there is a specific reason for the increase, holding regular meetings with the Health Protection Agency, Strategic Health Authority and Primary Care Trust to develop an action plan and investment in a hydrogen peroxide machine for deep cleaning. "

Amir Khan, medical director and director of infection prevention and Control at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust said reducing outbreaks was one of the main priorities for the trust.

"We have recently reached over 200 days without an MRSA bacteraemia at the Manor Hospital and this is down to the hard work and dedication of all staff at the trust.," he said."However, there is much still to do and we need to be vigilant.

"We have introduced a new method of detecting C.Diff earlier, which will enable us to find and eradicate the C.Diff before it causes clinical problems to the patient.

We are continuing to take a number of other actions across the organisation and we're working hard to tackle any issues to ensure that we keep up these high standards."

Nationally, the number of deaths from the superbugs were at their highest between 2001 and 2007.