Patients will be screened for MRSA

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It is the start of the biggest screening programme of its kind by a health board in the UK, according to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

The pre-admission screening will also target all pre-booked appointments and emergency admissions for operations, as well as specialist surgical procedures including heart surgery.

The Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley will be the first of 10 acute hospitals in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to launch the initiative.

By the end of September all patients arriving for planned operations at the Royal Alexandra Hospital will be screened for MRSA.

The health board estimates it will screen about 87,000 admissions per year across all its hospitals.

Dr Brian Cowan, the health board's medical director, said: "Screening will allow us to identify people admitted to our hospitals with MRSA and thus minimise the risk of infections spreading.

"As part of the routine pre-admission process that patients currently undergo a simple nasal swab will also be taken to test for MRSA. If a patient is found to have MRSA present on either their skin or in their nose it will be treated with an eradication plan before the patient is admitted."

The Scottish government has provided £1.3 million of funding to allow the samples to be processed, which takes between 24 and 36 hours, as well as increase the number of nursing and laboratory staff and equipment for pre-assessment.

MRSA is found on the skin or in the noses of some people and often there are no harmful effects but infections can occur when MRSA enters an open wound.