£57m extra cost of NHS superbugs

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Figures published today reveal the additional cost of discharging every hospital patient who acquires MRSA is £9,000. This is on top of the cost of emergency or routine hospital treatment.

A report by financial risk managers Marsh, which advises NHS trusts, shows Britain comes near the bottom of the MRSA infection league, behind Germany, Spain, France and Italy in a ranking of 12 countries. Only Romania, Cyprus, Malta and Portugal have worse MRSA rates.

The findings will be presented at a conference today at the Royal College of Physicians in London on combating superbugs.

Robert Wendin, head of healthcare at Marsh, said NHS trusts may start withholding payments to hospitals with poor infection rates.

Mr Wendin said: "We need a zero-tolerance attitude which is economically less expensive. We're moving in the right direction but we should be testing everyone for MRSA on admission and building single occupancy rooms."

Superbugs cost the Government a total of about £2 billion a year.