An organisation formed a year ago to support patients with MRSA and their families, and to campaign for action to reduce the spread of hospital acquired infections, may run a candidate in the next general election, it has emerged.
Teresa Graham of MRSA and Families said yesterday that the prospect of running a candidate was discussed at a recent meeting of the group. "The organisation hasn't yet decided whether to run a candidate," she said. But she added that it had not yet been ruled out.
Ms Graham said her organisation was frustrated that a year after it began pushing for existing guidelines to be implemented, which would reduce the numbers of patients picking up superbugs in hospitals, "we are no nearer reducing the amount of infection".
Her comments followed the publication in The Irish Times yesterday of new figures showing no improvement in the numbers of MRSA cases reported by hospitals between 2004 and 2005.
She said the figures, which indicated close to 600 patients were diagnosed with MRSA bloodstream infections last year and at least 7,600 more were found to have MRSA on their skin, were testament to the stories her organisation was hearing from families across the State. "We have been around the country and the stories we are hearing are heartbreaking. We need something done now," she said.
Ms Graham, whose late husband picked up MRSA while a cancer patient at Waterford Regional Hospital, said she made a formal complaint last week to the Garda about the hospital under Section 30 of the 1947 Health Act. Under this section it is, as she understands it, a criminal offence to allow the spread of infection in a care setting once one is aware of the risk. Others were also considering making reports to the Garda, she said.
Meanwhile, the Health Service Executive confirmed last evening that it is now proceeding with the recruitment of 52 extra infection control staff. The lack of progress on their recruitment had been highlighted in this newspaper yesterday by Prof Martin Cormican, president of the Irish Society of Clinical Microbiologists. He said the HSE had been told it could not recruit them because of a Government cap on recruitment.
Dr Kevin Kelleher, assistant national director of population health/health protection with the HSE, had confirmed the difficulty and said negotiations in an attempt to solve the problem were ongoing with the Department of Health.
However, the problem was resolved yesterday. A spokesman for the department said yesterday that it was up to the HSE to recruit staff within its existing staff ceiling. Later a HSE spokesman said "recruitment for the 52 posts is now proceeding".
Fine Gael's health spokesman, Dr Liam Twomey, said the spread of hospital acquired infections would not stop until overcrowding was tackled.