AN action plan has been drawn up to combat drug resistant infections within Royal Bolton Hospital – as medics continue to battle the coronavirus fallout.
Measures to tackle MRSA are among the items covered in Bolton NHS Trust’s infection prevention and control annual report after six cases were recorded in a year – against a target of two.
But for e.Coli, in the same period, there were 217 instances, of which 41 originated in the hospital.
And that is a decrease from the previous year when there were 250 cases in total and 39 hospital onset cases
The findings were set out in a report by report covering April 2019 to March 2020, was written by Richard Catlin, assistant director of prevention and control.
He said: “Infection prevention and control remains critical to the trust as it is a core component in the delivery of clean, safe care.
“Anti-microbial stewardship has increasingly been identified as a challenge for the UK and presents a legitimate risk of the widespread dissemination of multi-drug resistant organisms and is therefore reflected in this report and future plans.”
The report stated over the year Royal Bolton had six cases of MRSA, with two of those contracted at the hospital. The previous year there were just two cases with one hospital onset case.
The report, said: “NHS England has set a zero tolerance policy for MRSA so every acute provider has a trajectory of zero cases every year. During 2019/20 there were two hospital onset cases.
“The source of the first patient’s infection was an ankle ulcer and old prosthesis and the post-infection review did not identify learning that would have mitigated the outcome.
“The patient was known to be MRSA positive and was managed in line with the policy. The source of the second patient’s infection was an infected abscess formed from repeated injections of recreational drugs.
His report also stated: “E. coli infections are more complex than MRSA or MSSA infections and much less likely to be attributed only to healthcare provision with personal hygiene and levels of hydration key risk factors for these infections. Bolton has seen a general reduction of cases over the past few years.”
There were also 111 cases related to clostridium difficile, 68 for klebsiella and 101 MSSA cases recorded.
The report set out measure of prevention used by staff at the hospital which included monthly meetings of an infection control group. A community infection control team also works at other venues in Bolton to help curb infections.
