Pensioners hit hard in superbug battle

May 19 2008 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

HOSPITAL superbugs are infecting pensioners at a growing rate, despite four years of efforts to clean up NHS wards in the North.

Figures released by the Government show health bosses are struggling to contain the number of cases of superbug clostridium difficile (C diff), with cases of the infection quadrupling over the last five years in some hospital trusts.

Hospitals have been forced to keep track of infection rates for four years in order to focus the minds of managers and staff on prevention methods.

And a report due out this week is expected to reveal that nationally the number of deaths linked to C diff has quadrupled in five years. Last night North health trusts were accused of not doing enough to tackle the rates of C diff, a disease which the Government says should be tackled in part by stricter hospital cleaning routines.

Blyth MP Ronnie Campbell, a former health select committee member, said he was concerned at what appeared to be “a lack of control”.

Mr Campbell said: “I know there are no easy answers, but something has to be done. Yes, we have these figures but I think even they fail to really sum up what is at stake here.

“We are talking about a disease that strikes old people and in too many cases results in death. A death which comes too early, I think, and one which we could at least reduce the risk of if we were stricter about hospital conditions.

“Maybe more needs to be done on looking at routes to tackle this, but at least let’s get that bit right first. We have had long enough.”

Government figures show that in 2004 Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust had 370 cases in patients aged 65 and over. Provisional figures for 2007 show the trust responding to 730 incidents.

In Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust – which has hospitals in Hexham, Wansbeck and North Tyneside – the 367 cases reported in 2004 rose to 504 last year.

Professor Kate Gould, a microbiologist tasked with improving standards in Newcastle wards, said a lot was being done to combat infection rates.

She said: “It’s a recurring problem and we will never truly be rid of this.

“We don’t have exact figures for how many people brought the bacteria into the hospital and how many contracted it here, but what we are sure of is the steps we have put in place to counter this.

“In order to suffer from C diff you have to have the bacteria in your gut and to have antibiotics which kill off the good bacteria and leave you with more C diff which produces a toxin which will eventually lead to diarrhoea.

“Controlling C diff presents its own problems, because many people can bring it into hospital with them and not have any problems until they are given antibiotics.”

Dr Bryan Marshall, director of infection prevention and control at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust, disputed the Government figures, claiming to have halved their infection rate to less than 300.

He said: “Nationally figures for clostridium difficile have risen over the years. At Northumbria we have worked hard to reverse the trend and by the end of 2007 we had halved the number of cases of C difficile.”

The difference between the hospitals claims and the Government figures is down to a change in the way cases were recorded after February this year.

Elsewhere in the North East, City Hospitals Sunderland and Gateshead Health saw their C diff figures go down slightly between 2004 and 2007, but there was a rise from 291 to 368 for County Durham and Darlington.