HOSPITAL SUPERBUG SHAME

Dr Julian Lewis made the damning accusation during a House of Commons debate on infections contracted in hospital, including the potentially fatal MRSA bacteria.

Conservative backbencher Dr Lewis said relatives of patients treated at the hospital had told him:

Dirty swabs were dropped on floors.

Soiled sheets were discarded near beds.

Nurses injected successive patients without washing their hands in-between.

Used gloves and aprons were left in an overflowing bin on a ward.

Spots of blood were seen on window-sills and ceilings.

Dr Lewis said: "It is surely astonishing that, so many years after Florence Nightingale's basic lessons of hygiene were put into effect with such dramatic results, we are having to learn them all over again."

Recently-published Department of Health figures showed up to 100,000 people a year catch an infection during a stay in hospital - costing the NHS an estimated £1 billion a year. Hospitals are breeding grounds for bacteria because they are filled with weakened patients, many with open wounds.

Last year the Daily Echo revealed how four people in the hospital's intensive care unit had been struck down with MRSA (methicillin resistant staphyloccocus aureus).

New Forest East MP Dr Lewis said medical staff had been shifted away from the "fundamental duty" of keeping patients in a clean and safe environment.

He told MPs: "I shall give three examples which refer to three cases about which people sent me letters in a 24-hour period.

"One patient's wife wrote to me listing in detail 'the dirty state of the ward in September 2002 and the administering of injections to successive patients on repeated occasions by nurses who did not wash their hands before moving from one patient to another'.

"While another patient was in Southamp-ton General, his wife observed dirty swabs left on the floor for two or three days at a time, as well as excrement left on the floor after sheets were changed.

"Once again, nurses were observed not washing their hands or changing gloves before administering injections.

"In the case of a third patient, while on the D level wards his family observed blood and pus on the table alongside his bed and on the window-sill, as well as blood spots on a ceiling tile.

"On some occasions, he was attended by staff members who were not wearing the relevant gloves and aprons and on others such gloves and aprons were left for long periods in an overflowing bin in his room after they had been discarded.

"Soiled bedding was also left in the room for several days."

Dr Lewis said the family admitted standards of hygiene and cleanliness in other wards were "very good". However, he added: "What is the point of having high standards in one part of the hospital when the patient has already been made seriously ill by low standards in another part?"

Health chiefs at Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust had accepted the criticisms and pledged to tackle the problem of cleanliness, said Dr Lewis.

He added: "It should not be the case, however, that things can go wrong in this way so that people have to complain to get remedial action on a piecemeal basis.

"The systems in place should include the sort of rigorous discipline that existed in my days as a youngster, which meant that, when I had to be admitted to a hospital for a scrape or a minor operation, cleanliness shone out at patient and visitors alike.

"That is what we have lost and what we look to the government to help us recover."

Health minister Stephen Ladyman replied: "Hospital-acquired infections are significant economically and, more importantly, significant to the welfare of patients.

"It is right and proper that we take the matter seriously. Such infections are difficult and expensive to treat. They affect patients by causing illness, pain, anxiety, longer stays in hospital and sometimes death. We must face up to the challenges that they present."

Mr Ladyman refused to comment on individual anecdotes but urged Dr Lewis to write to the chief executive of Southampton General about problems.

He said: "If the chief executive does not take it seriously, he should write to ministers who will ensure that someone does."

Referring to Mr Lewis' criticisms that nurses were less likely to be trained in hygiene and cleanliness, he said: "It is important to recognise that we have a different health care system now. It is far more advanced compared with the old days."

FACTFILE:

What is MRSA?

MRSA is a bacterium often found in noses of healthy people and is also commonly found on people's skin. Most strains of this bacterium are sensitive to many antibiotics and infections can be effectively treated. Varieties which are resistant to an antibiotic called methicillin are referred to as methicillinresistant staphylococcus aureus or MRSA.

Is MRSA dangerous?

This bacterium is usually confined to hospitals and in particular to vulnerable or debilitated patients. MRSA does not pose a risk to the health of hospital staff, unless they are suffering from a debilitating disease, or family members of an affected patient or their close social or work contacts.

What does MRSA cause?

Most people who have MRSA present in their body or on the skin do not become ill. A proportion of patients become infected particularly if they have been put at greater risk, such as following an operation. These patients may then develop illnesses such as wound and skin infections, urinary tract infections, pneumonia or blood poisoning.

How is MRSA treated?

Where infection is present, antibiotics commonly used are not effective and the patient will require treatment with specialist antibiotics. These are expensive, may be toxic and have to be given by intravenous infusion. Patients infected with MRSA must therefore be treated in hospital.

How is spread of MRSA prevented?

Scrupulous handwashing by hospital staff before and after contact with patients and before any procedure is the single most important infection control measure. Patients with MRSA should be physically isolated in a single room with the door remaining closed and the room regularly damp dusted, or they should be nursed in a special ward away from other patients. When such a patient is discharged from hospital, their room should be comprehensively cleaned and all waste disposed of in special bags.

SOURCE: Association of Medical Microbiologists.