The public will be surprised and concerned by the prevalence of potentially fatal superbugs in our public hospitals last year.
The incidence of MRSA infection, in particular, and the failure of health authorities to respond more effectively to a North/South study of the threat in 1998, is particularly worrying.
Irish hospitals now report one of the highest incidences in Europe of the antibiotic-resistant MRSA bug. And not enough is being done about it.
More than 500 cases of life-threatening MRSA bloodstream infection were identified in hospitals last year, with over 6,000 patients carrying the highly-infectious bug on their skin, but not falling ill as a consequence. Our Health Correspondent, Eithne Donnellan, reported in yesterday's editions that the potentially fatal bug Clostridium difficile had infected patients in 15 hospitals.
The situation may be even worse than reported, as the quality of investigation into such infections varies from hospital to hospital. It cannot be assumed that the hospitals with the highest number of reported cases of various bugs have the biggest problems.
Hospitals are always a potentially dangerous place to be because of the possibility of cross-infection from other patients and from members of staff. But we have failed to keep up with our European neighbours in ensuring best practice in hospital care. And our over-crowded, poorly staffed and underfunded hospitals are now struggling to cope with antibiotic-resistant bugs. Some extra funding was made available in recent years. More infection-control nurses were employed. But there is a continuing shortage of isolation units. And the quality of hygiene in many of our hospitals is abysmal.
Five years ago, the then minister for health, Micheál Martin, published the details of a North/South study of MRSA that was conducted in 1998. It advised that good hospital cleaning practices, the correct use of antibiotics and better infection control programmes were the most effective ways to fight this infection. And it found the major mode of transmission was through the failure of healthcare personnel to wash their hands. Since then, health boards and hospitals have been forced to review their procedures as the general public becomes aware of the seriousness of the threat to patients. The possibility of litigation has also concentrated minds.
Last June, Minister for Health Mary Harney announced that a national hospital hygiene audit would be conducted in order to encourage cleanliness. The results of that audit will become available next month.
The figures now in the public domain come from public hospitals. But there is no evidence that infection rates in private hospitals are any lower. Certainly, anecdotal evidence would suggest that standards of hygiene are similar in both the public and private health sectors. Simple things like hand-washing and proper cleaning procedures can save lives. It is not rocket science. The public deserves better treatment.