Hospital trust calls in expert to wage war on superbugs

2:20pm Tuesday 5th February 2013 in News

AN expert is being brought in to find out why Bolton is failing to control superbug infections.

There were 77 cases of clostridium difficile (C.diff) across Bolton between April and December — 48 more cases than the annual maximum target of 28.

There have been 59 cases at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, which includes the Royal Bolton Hospital.

With three months still to go, the figure is expected to rise further and means the Trust could face a £4.5 million fine.

Su Long, designate chief officer of Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said in the North of England, Bolton is the only medium acute trust to have gone over its target for C.diff, and of the North’s 44 trusts, it is one of just four to have failed so far this year.

The Trust has on average between eight and 10 cases of the superbug each month. In December it had 12 cases.

Ms Long said despite work with the Trust to try and bring down the number of cases, the figure was not improving.

She added the external expert would review action plans and see if anything more could be done.

Ms Long said: “These levels are not acceptable, and I’m sure all Bolton people would agree cases of C.diff need to be lower.”

Dr Colin Mercer, clinical director for governance and safety at the CCG, said the issue needed to be addressed or the Trust would fail the target again next year.

He added: “We want to be aiming for zero cases each month. Even if there are only five, it is not much good if you are the patient who is one of the five.

“It is going to be a big problem next year and we need to do something about it.”

C.diff can cause severe diarrhoea, abdominal pain and fever.

A panel set up to review every case at the hospital has found the majority were “unavoidable”.

Heather Edwards, head of communications at the Trust, said: “Every single case of C.diff that happens while a patient is in the care of the Trust is reviewed thoroughly to look at possible causes.

“In the vast majority of cases they have been caused by the use of necessary antibiotics and are therefore unavoidable. We continue to work hard on this aspect of care and our revised antibiotic prescribing policy is being externally validated.”

Comments(13)

chris25 says...
10:20am Tue 5 Feb 13

surely you dont have to bring a expert in to work out why .stop all the patients going out for smokes and coming back in with dressing gown ,slippers full of outside germs .and stop staff wearing uniform out of work ,bring back matron ,any other ideas

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chris25 says...
10:23am Tue 5 Feb 13

surely you dont have to bring a expert in to work out why .stop all the patients going out for smokes and coming back in with dressing gown ,slippers full of outside germs .and stop staff wearing uniform out of work ,bring back matron ,any other ideas when i was in last year woman across way was always going for a smoke coming back stinking place out climbing on bed with her slippers still on what can you do .

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arrian says...
10:46am Tue 5 Feb 13

a couple of years ago my daughter was admitted to Bolton hospital with c. dif. caused by anti biotics. we were told by the nurse to use the hand wash to kill the bacteria, but when i read up about c. dif. it said the hand wash was ineffective against this bug, and to use hot water and soap.

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oftbewildered2 says...
11:30am Tue 5 Feb 13

when I was in hospital I reported to the nurse in charge that there was no soap in the dispenser in the toilets. She told me that it was not her job to replace the soap!!!!!! Maybe not, but it was her responsibility to see that someone did it. I reported it to the ward cleaner when she came on the next day and she dealt with it. In the meantime we all used my bar of soap, which was not ideal but was better than nothing but we were all recovering from surgery. Re hand gels at entrances to wards etc. The notice says to wash your hands with it, but no information is given as to how to wash correctly (ie between fingers etc.) Not everybody knows this procedure.

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trish1975 says...
11:31am Tue 5 Feb 13

remember when hospitals smelt like hospitals, there was no superbugs then. so maybe they should go back to actually using bleach and disinfectant to do the cleaning like they did in the old days.

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John Edwards says...
11:58am Tue 5 Feb 13

True, Trish, how true. Sad to say those days are long gone. Today it's how quick and how cheap. As Chris25 says, bring back the matron.

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boltonnut says...
12:20pm Tue 5 Feb 13

Controls should have been in place before the out break,only now do they bring in a (EXPERT)????It's a little late don't you think?You can bet this EXPERT doesn't as cheap as a bottle of Detol.

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chris25 says...
2:32pm Tue 5 Feb 13

just thought i would mention as well, i got rushed in to AnE with kidney stones, (agony) in next cubicle a asian guy sat up in bed FOUR mates sat on floor laughing ,talking loud, eating crisp ,chocolate, drinking cans of pop, it was left to my husband to tell them that there are ill people around here, why dont you shut up and have a bit of respect which they did ,but why was it left up to him.

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melloj1 says...
3:01pm Tue 5 Feb 13

As a cleaner working there many of us agree that the heating is ridiculously uncontrolled, doesn't take a genius to work out it contributes to bacteria growth. Right throughout the year it is stifling. Turn the heating down!! I guarantee you'll see a fall in infections, and more pleasant to work in.

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paul5559 says...
4:19pm Tue 5 Feb 13

Does the hospital not employ infection control nurses?

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Harry-Joe says...
11:54am Wed 6 Feb 13

wasting money again!!!
What is wrong with these idiots.

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Ocean 1 says...
7:00pm Fri 8 Feb 13

Many of these comments are true, as for infection control nurses, yes they have them but their decision to close wards get overturned as managers need beds so its a vicious circle.
And you can only advise patients not to go off the ward.

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boddingtons101 says...
6:29pm Mon 11 Feb 13

I hang my head in despair at the ignorance of the people who comment on subjects which they know absolutely NOTHING about

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