Superbug figures 'a challenge' says hospital boss (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Superbug figures 'a challenge' says hospital boss

4:03pm Tuesday 4th November 2008

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Airedale Hospital needs to work hard to keep its total number of MRSA superbug infections to ten or less in this financial year, according to its head of planning and performance.

Delivering the trust’s half-year review to board members, Stuart Shaw said the Steeton hospital had recorded five cases of MRSA since April this year.

It has a target of acquiring no more than ten instances of this type of illness in a 12-month period.

“We’re right on our limit,” said Mr Shaw.

Trust chief executive Adam Cairns said: “I’m quite concerned about MRSA. These are small numbers but we face a significant challenge for the rest of this year keeping within the target limit of ten cases.”

He said he felt the hospital had been “a bit unlucky”, pointing out that three of the five MRSA cases it had recorded had originally been acquired in the community.

But Mr Shaw noted Airedale had been successful in reducing the number of patients catching the Clostridium Difficile infection.

After recording 35 cases of the bug in the first quarter of this financial year, there were only 14 cases in the second quarter.

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