Hospital bugs 'are being neglected'
The Government has been accused of "neglecting" deadly hospital bugs as figures showed some infections may be soaring.
Cases of MRSA have increased in more than one in 10 NHS trusts while Clostridium difficile has gone up in almost one in five - despite an overall reduction in the two illnesses since a £120 million crackdown was launched.
Other bloodstream infections - such as MSSA, which left actress Leslie Ash fighting for her life - may also be going up, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.
Edward Leigh, Conservative MP and chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, said the increases were "threatening all those who use our healthcare system." He said: "There has been a lamentable lack of progress in measuring these other infections and therefore they have been neglected."
While the Department of Health met its overall target to reduce MRSA bloodstream infections by 57% and C diff was reduced by 41%, Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said "compliance with good practice is still not universal".
It emerged there was no national data on some of the most common infections, such as urinary tract infections and pneumonia. Ms Morse said there was a "lack of robust comparable data" on infection risks. She added: "The Department of Health's hands-on approach to what seemed, in 2004, to be an intractable problem, has been successful in reducing MRSA bloodstream and C diff infections. This is a significant achievement and a good example of what concerted effort can achieve.
The Government had introduced a target to reduce MRSA across all NHS trusts by 50% by 2008 and C diff by 30% by 2010-11. But evidence showed, while a quarter of trusts have reduced MRSA by more than 80%, in 12% of trusts there has been an increase in MRSA infections.
It also emerged that 29% of trusts have reduced C diff by more than 50%, but in 19% of hospital trusts the numbers of C diff infections have increased. About 9,000 people died in 2007 where MRSA or C Diff was a contributory factor.
Health minister, Ann Keen, said: "We remain totally committed to eliminating all preventable healthcare associated infections. That is why the Health Secretary yesterday announced plans to develop a new minimum standard for MRSA which will help drive all NHS organisations towards reaching the standard of the top performers.
"As a nurse myself, I am especially pleased to see that the National Audit Office has recognised the contribution that nurses -- and the reintroduction of matrons onto our wards - have had in delivering the reductions in MRSA and C diff infections."
