More patients diagnosed with hospital superbugs

The number of patients diagnosed with hospital-acquired infections in the Black Country and Staffordshire has soared in the last five years, new figures show.

The data includes any infection caught while a patient was in hospital including MRSA, C.diff and Norovirus.

The NHS Information Centre has revealed there were 1,193 cases of infections caught in hospitals across the Black Country and Staffordshire in 2010/11. This is a rise of more than 500 per cent compared to 193 infections in 2006/7. But health chiefs say a reason for this could due to improved testing to diagnose problems earlier.

The biggest number of infections was in South Staffordshire where there were 356 cases in the last full year, followed by 322 in Sandwell and 232 in Wolverhampton. Walsall saw 161 hospital infections while Dudley had 92.

Dr Steve Cartwright, medical director for primary care trusts in the Black Country, said today: "There are a number of things that can affect overall in-fection rates. Better testing and improved reporting can cause figures to rise."

So far this year New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton and Dudley's Russells Hall Hospital have both breached their targets on the number of C.diff cases. New Cross Hospital is expecting 144 cases, 60 more than its target but it is using a new more-sensitive test that picks up more cases.

There have been almost 100 cases of C.diff at Russells Hall Hospital since April, above the target of 77.

Related stories:

• Hospitals winning superbug battle

• Hospital bug cases at an all-time low

• Medics facing blitz on sloppy hand-washing