Information plan: A major information campaign aimed at getting healthcare workers to wash their hands in a bid to prevent the spread of infection among hospital patients is about to be organised at the insistence of the Tánaiste and Health Minister, Ms Harney.
She is to consult with the recently-appointed director of the new National Hospitals Office, Mr Pat McLoughlin, about the campaign.
Sources close to the Tánaiste confirmed last night she wanted to see an effective information campaign around hand hygiene developed as soon as possible. It will be aimed at the public as well as healthcare workers.
"The feeling is this is a matter of priority. It has to get up and running early in the New Year," the source said.
The move follows reports of alarming numbers of patients picking up superbugs, particularly the antibiotic resistant MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) in Irish hospitals every year. It is estimated that up to 10,000 patients a year may be "colonised" by the bug and while colonisation does not result in illness, if the bug gets into the bloodstream, which does happen in more than 400 cases a year, it can be serious and even fatal.
The Republic has the second-highest rate of MRSA infection in Europe.
Lack of hand hygiene by doctors and nurses is regarded as central to curbing the spread of hospital-acquired infections such as MRSA. Overcrowding and overuse of antibiotics are other factors.
Since becoming Minister for Health Ms Harney repeatedly expressed her amazement at the fact that guidelines had to be issued by the Department of Health to healthcare staff on hand washing.
"It seems incredible, but we had to issue guidelines on hand hygiene recently. When I saw this in my briefing note, I had to check whether it was correct," she told the Dáil in October.
The chief medical officer had told her, she added, that "the most practical and sensible thing we can do to stop the spread of the bacteria in a health setting in which people are particularly vulnerable and sick is to encourage hand hygiene and the washing of hands".
Meanwhile it is not yet clear whether or not she will force hospitals to publish data on their MRSA infection rates.
In the UK officials became so alarmed by their MRSA figures that they have introduced league tables comparing each hospital's incidence of infection. This has put pressure on hospitals to cut infection rates.
Ms Harney's spokesman said yesterday there was a need to examine the way data on MRSA infections is compiled.
However, he said it may not be fair to publish league tables as some hospitals are receiving large numbers of referrals from other hospitals of patients who may be bringing the bug with them.
Last week the British government published a guide containing details on how different areas of hospitals should be cleaned.
It came a day after a British newspaper highlighted the problem of hospital infections which it claimed killed 5,000 patients a year.
Along with its guide to how hospitals should be cleaned the government published the results of inspections on 1,184 hospitals and units in England.
Less than half had the high standards of cleanliness necessary to defeat MRSA and other infections.