Patients must be told they have MRSA, warns Harney

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney has warned doctors that they have a legal responsibility to inform patients who have contracted the deadly MRSA bug while in hospital.

In a frank letter to the chief of the Health Service Executive, Professor Brendan Drumm, Ms Harney said the widespread failure of hospital doctors to inform patients and their families of their diagnosis and its implications was "not acceptable".

She states where MRSA is a primary or contributory cause of death, this "should be recorded in the appropriate section on the death certificate."