NSW patients at greater risk of infection by super bugs

Feb 13 2008

A study published late last year on the prevalence of the bug, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA which showed that far more MRSA bugs were collected in NSW-ACT hospitals than in other states, has been supported by one of Sydney's most senior surgeons.

The study found that Sydney hospital patients are more likely to contract lethal infections than elsewhere in Australia, however the State Government says publishing hospital-by-hospital results would be counterproductive.

But Professor Richard West, who chairs the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons infection control advisory committee, has called for the routine release of hospital infection rates because he says patients in Sydney's intensive care units face an almost inevitable risk of catching a drug-resistant infection.

MRSA when it enters the bloodstream, dramatically increases the risk of death; it is estimated to be responsible for about 700 patient deaths a year in Australia.

Dr. West says other countries such as Scandinavia have implemented search-and-destroy strategies which have resulted in an MRSA rate of just 1 per cent.

Professor West says making the figures for each hospital available is the only way to make people change and improve conditions and he suggests the situation is the result of a dearth of leadership and motivation to change things and demand the resources necessary in extra staff and isolation rooms to fight infections effectively.

He says hand washing campaigns have had a mixed success, with as many as half of clinical staff still failing to wash their hands each time they looked at a new patient; he says there needs to be a change in attitude and a change in culture in hospitals.

The NSW Minister for Health, Reba Meagher opposes publishing individual hospitals' performance on safety and quality, on the grounds that it could discourage doctors from reporting on such details as infections.

Infectious disease experts say the figures indicated NSW hospitals have an inferior performance on infection control and insufficient isolation facilities such as single rooms for infectious patients.

MRSA and other golden staph infections initiate lengthy hospital stays for thousands of patients which costs the community millions every year.

Experts say evidence from England, Western Australia and South Australia has shown that when hospital infection figures are routinely collected and published, infection rates significantly lower in part because of public pressure to improve performance.