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Monday, 07 November 2005 08:57

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Failing to take MRSA seriously

A Patients Association (PA) report which will be out tomorrow claims that ministers are still failing to take MRSA seriously.

The report, shown exclusively to The Sun, will embarrass Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt who said in May MRSA was her “top priority”.

The PA conducted a survey on 2,121 infection experts in Britain’s 28 health authorities

They found that only 44 per cent of patients are screened for MRSA when they are admitted to hospital.

Just half are checked before being moved for treatment elsewhere.

The survey also found more than half of doctors and 40 per cent of nurses do not clean their hands between treating different people.

Almost a third of NHS hospitals do not employ cleaning teams at night — busy times for A&E units.

Some hospitals have no infection control expert nurses.

And many NHS trusts share their skills between hospitals.

The PA will tomorrow publish a ten-point plan to help minimise infections among patients.

Chairman Michael Summers said failing to check patients increases the likelihood of spreading germs.

He added: “Ideally we should be screening all patients but that would be difficult in emergencies.

“Still there are classes of patient who should be screened automatically.

“We shouldn’t need government guidelines for something so obvious.

“Hospital-acquired infections kill 5,000 each year and we have the worst rates in Europe”.

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