MRSA control expert to visit Ireland

A DOCTOR who has succeeded in reducing the rate of MRSA bloodstream infection by 60% in the largest health trust in Wales is to travel to Ireland to explain the secret of his success.

Dr Ian Hosein, director of infection control at the Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust, said he applied business management theory to control infection rates of the potentially fatal superbug.

"Rather than just looking at the technical aspect of the bug, I looked at the human behaviour aspects. I could see that while you could tell people till the cows come home about the bug, unless you could change the behaviour that helped it spread, you wouldn't succeed," he said.

"To bring about these changes, I looked at business leadership and marketing models. In terms of leadership, I created the post of director of infection prevention and control the first such post in the UK now being rolled out. This gave hygiene a much more powerful voice in the organisation than a microbiologist would have."

He also carried out a marketing survey asking people why they were reluctant to wash their hands.

Answers included never being told the correct way to wash their hands, and having a dislike of the washing agent or of the paper towel for drying.

"I realised you have to treat your staff as consumers if you want them to buy into something, you have to provide them with the tools. So I gave them what they wanted. I changed the washing agent and the towels and they responded."

Dr Hosein, who has direct responsibility for 1,600 beds and 10,000 staff, has brought audit ratings for general hygiene at his nine hospitals from 47% to 97% since 2001.

He will give a public lecture in the Gresham Hotel in Dublin at 7.30pm on January 26.

The MRSA and Families support group said they would be inviting hospital managers, nurses, and cleaning staff. Health Minister and Tánaiste Mary Harney will also be invited.

"Basically we want to pull all those who work in hospitals together," said the group's spokeswoman Teresa Graham.

She said they continued to receive phone calls from families whose relatives have contracted MRSA.

"We are dealing with more than 600 families," she said, adding that the support group was filling an advocacy role not provided by the health services to families dealing with MRSA.

MRSA and Families have recently launched its website at www.wallofsilence.ie.