Clean-Up Call As Lethal Hospital Bug Cases Soar

CASES of a lethal hospital bug in England have soared, prompting calls for improving cleanliness on wards.

Figures released yesterday revealed there were 44,488 cases of Clostridium difficile (C difficile) infection among over-65s in England in 2004.

There were only about 1,000 cases a year in the UK in the early 1990s, rising to more than 20,000 in 2000.

In 2003 there were 35,536 cases reported in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Pensioners are more susceptible to contracting the diarrhoea- causing infection.

According to the Office for National Statistics, in 2003 there were 1,748 mentions of C difficile on death certificates, of which 934 noted the infection as the underlying cause of death.

Karen Jennings, head of health at Unison, said: "The way to wipe out these bugs is to have cleaner hospitals.

"Cleaners are the frontline of defence and yet contracting out has led to a drastic cut in the number of hospital cleaners."

Gordon Lishman, director general for Age Concern England, said the figures would worry many older people.

"Many hospitals are clearly not doing enough to keep the wards safe and clean."

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Steve Webb said: "Ministers have been constantly playing catch up on hospital infections because successive governments refused to take the problem seriously.

"MRSA has grabbed the headlines but it is not the only bug on the rise in the NHS." In Merseyside, the Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen Hospitals University NHS Trust had the most cases with 524 and a rate of 2.13. Aintree Hospitals NHS Trust had 440 cases and a rate of 2.09 while Wirral Hospital NHS Trust had 334 but a rate of just 1.31.

St Helens & Knowsley Hospitals NHS Trust had 323 cases with a rate of 1.75, Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust 98 at a low rate of 0.8 and the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 193 at a rate of 1.87. Completing the regional picture, there were 15 cases at Clatterbridge at a rate of 1.03, 39 at Broadgreen’s Cardiothoracic Centre at 1.33 and 14 at the Walton Centre for Neurology at 1.63. There were no cases at Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

Chief Nursing Officer Christine Beasley said C difficile diarrhoea occurred in patients who have received broad spectrum antibiotics but most patients made a full recovery.

"We have issued guidance on dealing with outbreaks, with advice on antibiotic policies and isolating patientsp THE number of people waiting for an NHS operation in England has fallen to its lowest level in 17 years, the Government said yesterday.

The Department of Health said the total waiting list stood at 813,700 at the end of July – the lowest since data was first collected in the current way in September 1988.

This is a drop of 10,200 since June and a fall of 344,000 since March 1997