Revealed: The 77 hospital wards forced to close due to infections

May 26 2009 by Alison Dayani, Birmingham Mail

Mid Staffordshire Hospitals also had five positive tests for PVL MRSA in the past year, but said they were all acquired outside Stafford and Cannock Hospitals, in the community.

While Heartlands Hospital, in Bordesley Green, said even though data was “not routinely captured” on PVL MRSA cases, a “small number had been observed”.

The investigation also revealed that more than 77 wards were forced to be shut down at Midland hospitals in the past year, affecting hundreds of patients, due to constant outbreaks of norovirus, diarrhoea and other infections.

Tony Field, spokesman for Birmingham-based MRSA Support, said it was extremely worrying to see PVL cases on the rise across the city.

“PVL is still relatively rare and anything that can show a resistance to antibiotics is a very bad deal,” said Mr Field.

Beryl Oppenheim, director of infection control for City and Sandwell hospitals, said: “Of the patients whose tests were positive for PVL, all were given treatment to eradicate it, and none developed any serious infection.

“The Trust routinely screens all patients coming in for planned surgical procedures in its MRSA screening programme and takes infection control extremely seriously. Infection control and prevention is a top priority within this Trust.”