Morning:
14°c
New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
Some fares could fall by more than a third when Oyster is extended to every national rail station in London, it has emerged
More...
Hospital infections 'kill 10,000 a year'
Last updated at 22:52pm on 25.12.06
Problems such as MSRA are still rife in hospitals
Tough government targets to slash the number of deaths from hospital superbugs have been shelved as cases continue to overwhelm hospitals.
Health trusts were ordered earlier this year to halve the annual 5,000-strong death toll by 2008.
But the Department of Health has admitted it will fail to meet the pledge after the number of people infected by MRSA dropped just two per cent to around 7,000.
Cases of a more deadly strain, C-difficile, have soared 17 per cent while a new bug, PVL, has killed several people including a premature newborn baby last week.
Health campaigners say the true number of deaths from hospital-acquired infections stands at 10,000 each year.
A Department of Health official admitted: 'This has proved to be far harder than we thought. MRSA is an enormous challenge.
"While we have succeeded in stabilising the situation, we have not been able to make big in-roads into reducing the number of hospital-acquired infections."
MPs and patients' organisations yesterday criticised the government's failure to tackle the scandal.
Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: "Over the last nine years there have been far too many cases where the government has allowed MRSA to become endemic.
"The result has been an evolving process leading to increased resistance to antibiotics."
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Steve Webb said: "The government talks tough on MRSA but is failing to deliver."
The Patients' Association said fear of hospital-acquired infections meant many people were now too scared to be admitted to hospital for routine surgery.
Chairman Michael Summers said: "We are very concerned. MRSA is still very much with us and now there is a new strain, PVL, which might not be as easy to control as it is a really harsh strain of MRSA and may not be controlled by antibiotics. C-difficile is on the increase as well.
"Patients are very concerned and are being put off elective surgery."
Mr Summers blamed underfunding of NHS trusts, adding: "The consequences of financial deficits are that hospitals are closing down wards, not engaging the right number of nurses, including infection control nurses, and cleaning contracts are not being renewed.
"We can't go on like this."
A total of 7,087 patients contracted MRSA in 2005/6, down marginally from 7,233 the previous year.
In 2004, the latest year for which figures are available, 1,168 people died after contracting MRSA on filthy hospital wards. A further 2,247 died from C-difficile.
PVL - Panton-Valentine Leukocidin positive Staphylococcus aureus - attacks white blood cells, leaving victims unable to fight infection.
In addition to the baby boy who died at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital last week, five other infants in the neonatal unit were found to have been contaminated with the killer bug.
Days earlier experts had warned the bug could overwhelm hospitals after 11 people were infected with another strain, PVL-MRSA at a Stoke-on-Trent hospital.
Two people - a young mother who worked there as a nurse and a young male patient - died.
A Department of Health spokesman last night said: "Ministers now have powers to penalise NHS trusts which fail to tackle infection rates."
Powers include sacking chief executives and sending in teams to tackle the infection rate.
