The Dublin county coroner is to write to a Dublin hospital regarding its infection control policy following the sudden death of a patient who was being considered for discharge after he contracted the superbug MRSA.
At an inquest into the death of Seán Kelly (77) of Ryecroft, Bray, Co Wicklow, Dr Kieran Geraghty told Dublin County Coroner's Court yesterday that he would write to management at St Columcille's hospital, Loughlinstown, requesting details of its infection control policy and of its isolation policy .
Mr Kelly died at the hospital on March 2nd this year from renal failure secondary to septicaemia and inflammation of the lining of the heart caused by MRSA, the inquest heard.
Consultant Mashood Ahmed told the court that Mr Kelly was first admitted to the hospital through the accident and emergency department on February 15th with abdominal pain caused by adhesions from previous surgery.
Nine days later Mr Kelly had recovered sufficiently to be considered for discharge when he tested positive for MRSA in this blood and in his sputum.
His condition deteriorated rapidly over the next few days and Mr Kelly died on March 2nd.
Mr Ahmed told the inquest that there is no microbiologist at St Columcille's to deal with MRSA and other superbugs, which "are not very common, but it does happen". Staff at the hospital must consult with experts at other hospitals if such infections arise, he told the inquest.
Although select groups of people are swabbed for MRSA colonisation (this is the presence of MRSA on the skin, which does not necessarily lead to infection) on admission to hospital, including patients who have come from other hospitals or nursing homes and patients who have open wounds, the hospital lacks the necessary resources to swab everybody, which is the ideal in infection control, the court heard.
There is also a lack of isolation rooms and there are no isolation facilities in the intensive care unit, although the hospital employs an infection control nurse. Dr Geraghty returned a verdict of death from a hospital-acquired infection.