Hospitals Lincolnshire Working Towards Screening All Elective Patients For MRSA, England

Main Category: MRSA / Drug Resistance
Also Included In: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 01 Dec 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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Hospitals in Lincolnshire are taking a pro-active approach to battling infections by screening patients for MRSA on admission.

At the moment, the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust screens patients for MRSA who are admitted as an emergency and other groups dependant upon the types of procedures to be undertaken.

Now the trust is working towards screening all elective patients for the infection, on admission, by March 2009. This announcement comes as part of Hand in Hand month - an East Midlands-wide campaign to raise awareness of infection prevention and control within the NHS.

Senior Infection Control Nurse at ULHT, Charmian Hutson, said: "The transmission of MRSA and the risk of MRSA infection can only be addressed effectively if measures are taken to identify MRSA carriers as soon as they come into hospital and treat them immediately.

"This requires screening of patients for MRSA either before or on admission to identify carriers. This means that then a decolonisation regime, including giving patients an antibacterial shampoo and body wash together with an antibacterial nasal cream, can be implemented at an early stage," she said. "We find that detecting and treating those who are carrying infections as early as possible is an effective way of cutting MRSA rates- and it's working. In the last year, rates of MRSA in our hospital have been cut by 37%."

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust
http://www.ulh.nhs.uk