Killer bug MRSA is alive and well at the North Middlesex Hospital - William MacDougall comments 15/07/04

North Middlesex Hospital worst for MRSA in any London ‘general’ hospital

Tottenham’s local hospital, the North Middlesex Teaching Hospital, was the worst general hospital anywhere in London for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the killer bug that is immune to most antibiotics.

The government’s own National Audit Office issued a highly critical report blaming a lack of hygiene and poor working practices for the ongoing scandal of MRSA – which kills over 5,000 patients every year across the country.

The report warns that:

· Hospital workers do not comply with hand-washing guidelines.

· Infection teams in hospitals do not have sufficient resources.

· Staff do not regard infection control as their concern.

· Overcrowding, which raises the risk of infection, has resulted from the Government's centrally-directed insistence on waiting-list targets which do not take into account local stresses.

· There has been little or no improvement in rates of infections other than MRSA since the last report by the NAO in these infections cost the NHS £1 billion every year.

Department of Health figures showed infections caused by MRSA in England increased from 7,384 in 2002/03 to 7,647 in 2003/04 - a rise of 3.6 per cent. The highest rate of MRSA for general hospitals was at the North Middlesex Teaching Hospital with 0.33 cases per 1,000 bed days.

Commenting on the shocking figures, William MacDougall, Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Tottenham, said:

"After 20 separate initiatives since the last damning report from the National Audit Office, it is outrageous that we are talking about the same problems and that figures are so sketchy that it is impossible to know exactly how bad they really are. 

"Thousands of lives have been lost, yet the Government's plans may amount to nothing. The report revealed the difficulty senior managers have reconciling infection control with the fulfilment of government performance targets. It is vital that hospitals are given real freedom if hygiene levels are to improve: freedom to introduce initiatives, improve facilities, and to balance competing priorities, such as waiting lists and safe bed occupancy levels, without risking the wrath of Whitehall."  

MacDougall added:

“ We don't need more central control, all we need is for hospitals to publish their MRSA rates and patients to be given the right to choose where they want to be treated and then hospitals would be forced to make the necessary improvements or face the consequences. The fact that the North Mid has been rated the worst hospital for MRSA infections is yet another example of how Tottenham people have been let down by this failing government."

ENDS.

Notes to Editors:

Figures for London hospitals:

Cases per 1,000 bed days 2002/3: 2003/4

Barking, Havering and Redbridge –  .24. 24
Bart's and the London - .21 .17
Barnet and Chase Farm - .28 .27
Bromley - .17 .09
Chelsea and Westminster - .22 .22 Ealing .29 .26
Queen Elizabeth Woolwich - .21 .19
Great Ormond Street - .17 .05
Guy's and St Thomas' - .43 .45
Hammersmith - .35 .37
Hillingdon - .17 .11
Homerton - .12 .09 King's College .37 .35
Kingston - .23 .14
Lewisham - .24 .26
Mayday - .20 .23
Newham - .23 .17
**North Middlesex** - .30 .33
North West London - .16 .20
Queen Mary's Sidcup - .25 .21
Royal Brompton and Harefield - .07 .04
Royal Free Hampstead - .39 .34
Royal Marsden - .10 .06
St George's Tooting - .24 .31
St Mary's Paddington - .35 .27
University College London - .33 .32
West Middlesex - .27 .25
Whipps Cross - .16 .15