Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.publicservice.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=10981
Swine flu threat to infection control
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
A second wave of swine flu swelling hospital admissions this winter could lead to a surge in MRSA cases. This is the view of the MRSA working group who, together with the National Concern for Healthcare Infection and the Patients Association, is calling for the early discharge of MRSA patients from hospitals.
Katherine Murphy of the Patients Association said: "There is a real risk swine flu patients may block isolation beds resulting in patients with healthcare infections, such as MRSA, being treated on general wards."
A severe shortage of isolation facilities has been seen as a long-term obstacle to preventing cross-infections in NHS hospitals.
Members of all groups are concerned that increased pressure on staff, bed occupancy rates over 90 per cent and the allocation of isolation facilities to swine flu patients could impact on recent efforts by the NHS to reduce MRSA bloodstream and clostridium difficile infections.
After a Care Quality Commission assessment of 388 NHS trusts to discover how many met government regulations for managing infections, 21 trusts achieved registration subject to conditions. Recent figures point toward continuing failures in 47 trusts.
A Department of Health spokesperson said the NHS had robust plans in place to deal with an increase in swine flu patients and added: "There is no link between MRSA rates and high rates of bed occupancy. Over the past few years, trusts with high-bed occupancy have reduced their MRSA levels to a similar extent to the low-occupancy trusts."
Swine flu threat to infection control
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
A second wave of swine flu swelling hospital admissions this winter could lead to a surge in MRSA cases. This is the view of the MRSA working group who, together with the National Concern for Healthcare Infection and the Patients Association, is calling for the early discharge of MRSA patients from hospitals.
Katherine Murphy of the Patients Association said: "There is a real risk swine flu patients may block isolation beds resulting in patients with healthcare infections, such as MRSA, being treated on general wards."
A severe shortage of isolation facilities has been seen as a long-term obstacle to preventing cross-infections in NHS hospitals.
Members of all groups are concerned that increased pressure on staff, bed occupancy rates over 90 per cent and the allocation of isolation facilities to swine flu patients could impact on recent efforts by the NHS to reduce MRSA bloodstream and clostridium difficile infections.
After a Care Quality Commission assessment of 388 NHS trusts to discover how many met government regulations for managing infections, 21 trusts achieved registration subject to conditions. Recent figures point toward continuing failures in 47 trusts.
A Department of Health spokesperson said the NHS had robust plans in place to deal with an increase in swine flu patients and added: "There is no link between MRSA rates and high rates of bed occupancy. Over the past few years, trusts with high-bed occupancy have reduced their MRSA levels to a similar extent to the low-occupancy trusts."