Hospital told MRSA is ‘insult’

Bosses at Shropshire’s main hospitals have been told it is an “insult” to give infections like the MRSA superbug to patients.

And they have been warned by the Department of Health that they need to maintain an attitude of “awareness and diligence” in the fight against MRSA. The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust invited the Department of Health’s MRSA improvement team to the Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal in January.

Over the past year the trust has failed to meet its reduction figure with 47 MRSA “bacteraemia” cases - on which hospitals are judged - against a target of 34.

The team’s findings will be presented to the trust board next Thursday.

These highlight areas of good practice, such as the cleanliness of the hospitals.

There is praise for chief executive Tom Taylor for the lead he is taking and for the “very dedicated” infection control team in place at the hospitals.

But the review team was not convinced that the sense of urgency and importance was “embedded” at all levels of the organisation.

Its report identifies a number of key areas where there needs to be urgent improvement, such as developing a system to analyse the root cause of infections and involving more staff in tackling the problem.

“Commitment to infection prevention and control is evident, and the sense of importance and urgency held by the chief executive needs to be translated to all levels of the organisation,” says the report.

The trust’s new divisional structure will provide the opportunity for more joint working and improve communication.

Ensuring that everyone understands their “role, responsibility and accountability” is fundamental, and improvements in screening and the use of antibiotics will play an important part.

The report adds: “You need to embed within the culture that it is an insult to give patients infections.”

A separate report from Mr Taylor says that since the visit, “progress” has been made on all the issues.

By Dave Morris