No plan to tackle deadly hospital bug
Department of Health hygiene guidelines were produced in 1995 on the management of the flesh-eating bug but it was left up to individual hospitals on how they should be implemented.
A new patients’ campaign group wants the Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney to establish tough procedures to reduce the number of MRSA cases and for hospitals to provide more information on the superbug.
The group’s founder is Margaret Dawson from Kilkenny, whose husband Joe, 58, contracted the superbug in hospital last year after undergoing surgery to relieve chronic pain to his upper spine.
Ms Dawson is furious with the Government and the Health Service Executive over their silence about the disease that has ruined her husband’s quality of life.
MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococus aureus) is a bacterium commonly found on the skin. But it is also present in dirt, dust and mops and cloths in hospitals. MRSA can kill a patient if enters into the bloodstream, especially if they are weakened by other illnesses.
There is no specific information about those patients who have died as a result of contracting MRSA. However, provisional figures collected by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre show that 533 cases were reported last year.
The patients’ lobby group, MRSA and Families, which held its first public meeting in Kilkenny last night, wants to break down the wall of silence surrounding the MRSA crisis in hospitals. It is anxious to meet Ms Harney to discuss dealing with this escalating crisis in the health service.
Teresa Graham from Tramore, Co Waterford, whose deceased husband, Dermot, contracted MRSA while being treated in hospital for cancer last year, said a stringent cleaning regime needed to be implemented in hospitals.
“This is a systems failure because the cleaning protocols are not being followed,” said Ms Graham, whose husband died last October.
She only found out by accident that her husband had contracted MRSA when she met a nurse coming out of his room wearing a gown and gloves.
When she told a consultant that her husband had contracted MRSA he just shrugged his shoulders, sighed and said: “It’s everywhere.”
Ireland lies second only to Britain on incidences of MRSA, according to figures provided by former Health Minister Micheál Martin.
The lobby group campaign is being backed by Independent Clare TD James Breen, who nearly died two years ago after contracting the bug.
The Health Service Executive said it had asked consultants to carry out the first national hygiene audit.
“Of course it is all about keeping hospitals clean but we must ensure that the highest standards are maintained,” a HSE spokesman said.
He said it was expected the audit would be completed by the end of August and any recommendations would be implemented immediately.
He pointed out the HSE was also involved in discussions with accreditation bodies with a view to establishing a national hygiene awards systems for hospitals.
