Legislative changes are urgently required to force hospitals to report instances of patients picking up infections such as MRSA while they are undergoing hospital treatment, a patient advocacy group has said.
The Irish Patients' Association (IPA) yesterday published further data showing the number of cases of the potentially fatal MRSA superbug reported per million of the population in Ireland to be the highest in Europe.
It said hospitals must also be mandated to inform patients when they have contracted hospital-acquired infections.
At present patients are often "kept in the dark" about their infections, the chairman of the IPA, Stephen McMahon, said.
An international survey conducted for the IPA among 102 patient groups from 23 countries, including Ireland, found one-third of the groups knew patients who have postponed going to hospital for operations over the past 12 months for fear of picking up an infection.
Up to 80 per cent of the groups were dissatisfied with the preventive measures being taken by hospitals to stop the spread of hospital-acquired infections in their countries.
It is not known how many Irish patients contract infections such as MRSA and clostridium difficile in hospital each year but estimates in the UK suggest some 5,000 people die each year from hospital-acquired infections. And treating hospital-acquired infections cost the NHS an estimated €1.3 billion in the year 2000.
The IPA report states deaths from hospital-acquired infection in the US are estimated to exceed car accident deaths and homicides combined each year.
Simon Williams, director of policy with the UK Patients' Association, told a press briefing in Dublin yesterday, where the study was presented, that there were nearly 1,000 deaths linked to MRSA in the UK last year.
He added that a survey for the UK patients association found 10 per cent of hospitals were reusing medical devices that should have been used only once and then disposed of.
And another recent study for the association found up to 5 per cent of endoscopes were not cleaned between patients.
Mr McMahon said hospital-acquired infections could not be eradicated but they could be cut. He attributed the high incidence in Ireland to overcrowding in hospitals, as well as a lack of basic hygiene.
He said a huge degree of co-operation and investment was required within the health system to crack the problem.
He added that data for 2003 shows MRSA rates in the Republic are higher than in 25 other European countries.
"Ireland heads the table of 25 counties surveyed with 119.3 cases per million in 2003, a staggering 2½ times higher than the next worst-hit country, Portugal, with 46.5 cases per million," he said.
The figures were reported to the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System but because not all European countries have laboratories feeding data to the system, the incidence in some countries could be higher than available figures indicate.
There were close to 500 cases of MRSA reported by Irish hospitals last year and a recently formed campaign group, MRSA and Families, is seeking a meeting with Minister for Health Mary Harney in an attempt to get her to lift what it refers to as the cloak of secrecy around hospital-acquired infections in the State.
Ms Harney has said hospitals that do not do enough to curb the spread of superbugs such as MRSA may in the future be compelled by legislation to act to maintain higher standards.
MRSA lives on the skin of many people without causing any problem but if it gets into the bloodstream, which it can do in patients with open wounds after surgery, it can be painful and even fatal.