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Superbugs kill nine a week
Amy Iggulden, Health Correspondent10 Mar 2008
More than nine patients a week are dying from hospital superbugs in London, the Standard can reveal.
Exclusive figures show for the first time the number of people dying from infections preventable by good hygiene. At least 489 patients died in the capital as a direct result of the stomach bug Clostridium difficile or infection MRSA in 2006.
The bugs were mentioned on a further 456 death certificates, according to figures obtained from the Office for National Statistics.
But a Standard investigation reveals widespread ignorance in hospitals about superbug deaths. Many trusts have no idea how many people with MRSA or C.diff have died in their care and are failing to monitor the problem.
Only 11 London hospital trusts contacted by the Standard were able to produce any data on deaths linked to hospital infections. Of these, just six could produce full figures for the last two years. Only two had information on the more deadly hospital bugs ESBL and GRE - two deaths had been linked to the antibioticresistant bacteria GRE since 2006.
Among the trusts that could not produce figures were Barts and the London and Guy's and St Thomas'.
Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust produced figures showing at least 101 patients died with or from superbugs between 2006 and last year. Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said it was "astonishing" hospitals were not closely monitoring the figures. He said: "How can trusts expect to know the effectiveness of measures they put in place to tackle these deadly diseases without collecting this data?"
Healthcare charity the Patients' Association said the death rates should be published alongside infection figures, which are released every quarter. Spokesman Michael Summers said: "It is extremely worrying that hospitals are not monitoring death rates properly.
"Patients have the right to know the numbers of deaths from MRSA and C.difficile, not just the numbers contracting an infection. It would be in their best interest to see the full list so they can make an informed choice."
Latest nationwide figures show 6,480 people died in 2006 with C. difficile - a rise of 72 per cent on the year before. At least half of these patients died as a direct result of the stomach bug, but the rise comes after a bid to improve reporting. London's superbug czar Colin Ovington admitted the public would be "surprised" by managers' ignorance of C.difficile and MRSA-linked deaths.
But he added: "They may also be surprised to hear that the problem, although present in London hospitals, is not as serious as in other parts of the UK and that we are determined to keep it under control and further reduce it. The extensive deep cleaning programme across all hospitals supported by £10 million investment is I think testament to our intention to make our hospitals safer places for patients."
The highest number of C. difflinked deaths was in the West Midlands, with 1,115 in 2006.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "Most patients with [ hospital infections] such as C.difficile infection recover and figures on deaths would tell us very little about healthcare-associated infections overall. Our surveillance systems concentrate on reported cases using standard definitions so that data collection is consistent."
'MY MOTHER'S C.DIFF DEATH WAS COVERED UP'
Violet Watson was among scores of people who died with C.diff at Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust in the last two years.
At least 95 deaths at the trust between 2006 and 2007 were linked to the infection - one of the largest totals in London.
The 91-year-old was admitted to hospital after concerns she was dehydrated. But within 11 weeks her organs were failing as she battled with the bug.
Daughter Jacqueline Stanford, 54, says Mrs Watson "lost half her body size" within weeks and claims the hospital covered up her death, saying it was from heart disease. She said: "On the original death notice it said C.difficile was the cause of death but it was crossed out and put as a contributory cause instead."
A spokesman for the trust, where Mrs Watson died in 2006, declined to comment on individual cases but claimed the death figures it had supplied were "misleading".
She said: "This is an extremely large and busy Trust, and the figures need to be looked at as a percentage of cases.
"The Trust ensures that MRSA and C Diff is stated on the death certificate if it were present, not only if it were the direct cause of death."
Reader views (2)
Fat cat salaries for the executive layers will be protected at the expense of leaky NHS funds and community safety. Patients can flag up bad or good practice and be ignored, the culture of cover up is never going to change until doctors can get the protection they need to blow the whistle, ie, not to lose their jobs when sticking their neck on the line, the same applies to nurses, nationally is bullying not something the government is blowing it's hooter about!
- Mary Foord Brown, Suffolk Coastal, UK, 11/03/2008 12:10
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Sounds like another government sponsored "designer disease".
- Malcom, London, UK, 11/03/2008 06:50
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