Lothian winning superbug war

Published on Thursday 9 April 2009 10:05

LOTHIAN hospitals are bucking the national trend by winning the war on superbugs, new figures have shown.

While other areas have experienced a rise in cases of MRSA, NHS Lothian has watched incidents tumble significantly in recent months.

While cases of C.diff have fallen by 20 per cent nationwide, in Edinburgh and the Lothians the drop is almost 50 per cent.

The news presents health chiefs with a significant boost as they attempt to stamp out the infections and restore public confidence.

Latest figures, released by Health Protection Scotland, show that C.diff is at its lowest rate in the Lothians since surveillance began. The rate of the infection stood at 0.76 per 1000 occupied beds between October and December 2008, a fall of 46 per cent from the previous year.

That works out as 149 instances in all, but the proportional rate of reporting allows NHS Lothian to be compared more fairly with health boards who have far fewer people coming through the doors, and reveals that the health board is well below the national average of 1.02 infections for every 1000 beds.

The improvement is a significant turnaround from previous years when NHS Lothian, at some stages, was the worst health board for C.diff.

Since then a range of measures have been introduced, including changes in prescribing, more hand-hygiene awareness and the appointment of at least one cleanliness champion on each ward to ensure standards are being met.

Director of public health and policy Dr Alison McCallum said the package of different measures was the main factor.

"We are continuing to drive down C.diff infections using a variety of methods," she said. "These include new guidelines on prescribing for older people, changing some of the chemicals used in cleaning and continuing with education initiatives aimed both at staff and visitors."

The release of the data comes as the Scottish Government announces plans for a national screening programme for MRSA.

This will apply to the Lothians and means people coming into hospital, both for planned procedures and emergencies, could be screened.

It will work in a similar way to a pilot which took place in smaller health boards, where patients were routinely checked for the disease, and if they had it they were given a five-day course of medicine to deal with it.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "Nobody should doubt this government's commitment to tackling hospital superbugs. We have worked tirelessly to crack down on these infections which cause misery and worry for patients and their families."