Targets blamed as hospital infection deaths rise 59%

Deaths linked with the two most common hospital-acquired infections have risen by 59 per cent in a year.

The superbugs MRSA and Clostridium difficile claimed more than 5,400 lives in 2005, up 2,000 on the previous year, according to latest figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) yesterday. The sharpest rise was in C. difficile, with a 69 per cent increase in cases where the infection was mentioned on death certificates. Deaths involving MRSA rose 39 per cent.

Officials from ONS said part of the increase was due to better recording through heightened public awareness, but they were unable to say how much of the increase this accounted for.

From 2001 to 2005, death rates linked with the MRSA bug doubled, while those for C. Difficile almost tripled.

The Health minister, Lord Hunt, said better recording had provided a "more accurate picture" but he accepted that cutting deaths from the bugs presented a "major challenge".

"We have set very tough targets for trusts to reduce infections and put a hygiene code and a tougher inspection regime into law, to drive up standards of hygiene and infection control. As a result, we are now starting to see significant reductions in rates of MRSA infections," Lord Hunt said.

The Health Protection Agency said there had been a small fall in bloodstream infections caused by MRSA in the first half of 2006 compared with the previous year, and a small rise in C. Difficile. David Nicholson, chief executive of the NHS, made reducing hospital infections one of his four top priorities for 2007.

Last month, a leaked government memo revealed that ministers' pledge to halve MRSA infections by April 2008 was unlikely to be met. The memo, by Liz Woodeson, director of health protection at the Department of Health, said tackling hospital infections was more complex than ministers had anticipated.

An earlier report by the Health Department's chief economist, obtained by The Independent last July, blamed government targets on cutting waiting lists for increasing the risk of infection. The most crowded hospitals, with bed occupancy rates over 90 per cent, had MRSA rates 42 per cent higher than average, the report said.

Opposition spokesmen attacked the Government on the issue yesterday. The shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: "Labour ministers are failing to face up to the dangers of MRSA and C. Diff. Three years ago I called for a search and destroy strategy to be piloted. Still it hasn't happened.

"Labour's savage bed cuts over the past two years have allowed deaths from C. Diff and MRSA to grow to this appalling level."

Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat spokesman for health, said: "We are in the dark over what is actually happening, with contradictory figures pointing in totally different directions. The Government's drive to cut waiting times at all costs conflicts with what should be an absolute priority of cutting infection rates."

The Patients' Association said it feared deaths would continue to rise. "Only two weeks ago the Government promised to make infection control one of its top priorities. Yet its own announcement to further reduce waiting times by round-the-clock operations will inevitably harm these efforts. Healthcare infections are a patient's main fear."

The ONS figures reveal that men are at twice the risk of dying from MRSA as women. It said a possible reason was poorer hygiene among men. In a third of the death certificates mentioning MRSA and a half of those mentioning C. Difficile, the infection was given as the underlying cause of death. In the rest, it was included as a contributory cause.

There are wide regional variations, with higher rates in the south of the country suggesting differences in recording.

Bruna Goth, 77: 'Her life has been taken away'

Bruna Goth had been making a good recovery from pneumonia, until she contracted the Clostridium difficile infection while a patient in Warrington Hospital in Merseyside. She died earlier this month.

Her grand-daughter, Melanie Thomas, said: "We are really concerned about these bugs that are in hospitals. My grandmother was still a very active lady, she looked after my little girl every day.

"Ten years ago she had to have a full mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer. She beat that, but now her life has been taken away like this."

Warrington Hospital would not comment directly on Bruna's case, but said infection control was a high priority. In a statement, Anna Alexander, deputy director of nursing, said: "Over the past year, we have implemented a number of measures aimed specifically at reducing cases of Clostridium difficile. These include participation in the national Cleanyourhands campaign, updating of infection control policies and regular reviews of the prescribing of antibiotics for patients."

She said the policies have led to a reduction in the number of C diff cases.

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