Hospitals successful in bid for extra cash to fight superbugs

Ity is part of a national investment pledged by the Government to help NHS organisations introduce new ways of preventing and controlling the spread of infections such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile.

The bugs are more likely to affect people who are already unwell or have a weak immune system.

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Royal Hallamshire, Northern General, Weston Park and Charles Clifford Dental and Jessop Wing hospitals, made a successful bid for funds.

Chief nurse Hilary Schofield said: “We are very pleased that our bid for extra funding was successful. We have an excellent track record for infection prevention and control with some of the lowest rates for MRSA and Clostridium difficile in the country.

“We are, however, always looking for new and better ways of tackling infection and this extra funding will help us to reduce the spread of infection even further.”

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is the best performing acute teaching hospital for the prevention and control of MRSA, latest Government figures show.

In 2006/07 cases of MRSA were reduced by 24 per cent, with 60 cases compared to 79 the previous year. Patients staying in hospitals have less than a one in 10,000 chance of contracting MRSA.

More than 640 patients were treated at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trusts last year for Clostridium Difficile, 25 more than the previous year.

The infection was implicated as a cause or contributing factor in the deaths of 23 patients in the care of the Trust between last April and January. But the rate is below average and the Trust is one of the top performing trusts for control of clostridium difficile infection.

The Trust has drawn up plans to be funded by the money, including improved education programmes.

They want more emphasis on using medical techniques to fight the bugs, such as more training on antibiotic prescribing and the correct taking of blood cultures.

Extra supplies of steam cleaning technology which can ‘deep clean’ clinical areas to remove all dirt and dust will be used to fight the bugs.