MRSA hospital deaths - Coroners’ Bill must not be delayed

GIVEN the burgeoning image of Ireland’s economy, it is alarming that people are dying because hospitals are dirty.

It is also outrageous that up to now, the deaths of those who died due to the unhygienic conditions of many hospitals have not been recorded as such. In effect, it was swept under the carpet.

Yesterday, for the first time in this country, a coroner attributed the death of a 74-year-old patient to hospital acquired infection caused by the superbug.

This scandalous scenario is not a matter of funding. People have been dying because of a failure of normal hygienic practices.

An independent probe described the conditions in hospitals up and down the country as appalling. Incredibly, medical staff were ignoring the basic practice of simply washing their hands.

Yesterday’s verdict shows that Valentine Ryan died of acute renal failure due to septicaemia in April 2002. Having contracted the infection at the Mercy Hospital, Cork, he died in Cork University Hospital.

Consultant Neil Plant, who attributed the cause of death to MRSA on the death certificate, deserves to be applauded. Otherwise, the cause of death could have gone unrecorded.

At the time, as Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane observed at yesterday’s inquest, it was not clear if MRSA should be reported to coroners as a matter of course. From here on, as she said, all cases of MRSA-related death ought to be reported to coroners.

Furthermore, it is essential that family members of patients who die from MRSA infection be given full information at inquests. Nor should coroners have to wait for new legislation to do this.

Such measures should be basic requirements of the Coroners’ Bill currently being framed by Government.