Hospitals to have single rooms to beat superbugs

Old-style multi-bed wards are to be scrapped and replaced with private rooms in response to huge pressure on trusts to combat the spread of potentially fatal superbugs such as clostridium difficile and MRSA.

North Middlesex University hospital is one of the first in the capital to be revamped.

About a third of its patients will be treated in single occupancy rooms when its £118 million redevelopment in Edmonton is completed in 2010.

The rest will be placed in four-bed units which can be sectioned off in the event of an infection outbreak.

North Middlesex is one of a tranche of new hospitals across the country to be approved under the Government's private finance initiative.

Others include Mid-Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust in Chelmsford.

They have all been issued with special guidance on how to make services superbug-free.

Official figures reveal that infection rates have dropped in London - cases of MRSA have fallen by a third.

But experts warn that managers must not be complacent, especially after the £5 million compensation payout to actress Leslie Ash, who won the record settlement earlier this year after contracting an infection at Chelsea and Westminster hospital.

The government guidelines state that new-build hospitals should aim for 50 per cent single occupancy but this depends on the size of the site and each case is considered individually.

The guidance does not apply to existing hospitals.

Campaigners warn the changes do not go far enough in combating potentially-fatal bugs. Tony Kitchen, of MRSA Support, called for hospitals to make all rooms single, like in other European countries.

He said: "In Scandinavia all rooms are single occupancy and that has been proven to cut down infection rates.

"Ideally we should do the same here, with wards changed to single beds."

Experts say the cost of switching to single occupancy would offset the £1 billion a year spent on treating the infections.

The design of the old-style wards makes it difficult to isolate infection outbreaks in hospitals. This is because nurses often forget to wash their hands when they attend to patients, especially when hospitals are at almost full capacity.

Lord Warner, chairman of the London NHS Provider Development Agency, has said new-build hospitals should contain separate rooms because C. diff is difficult to isolate with patients on traditional "Nightingale" wards.