A report recently published by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre has called for more isolation rooms to be provided to help defeat the spread of MRSI infections within intensive care units and hospitals.
Large differences in the availability and quality of single rooms in hospitals to isolate patients with MRSA was found in the report, which was conducted in 2010.
Less than half of the single rooms available had ante rooms, which help stop the spread of infection, while all single rooms had sinks.
Levels of MRSA were higher in intensive care units that dealt with the most seriously ill patient’s compared with units that dealt with less serious cases. Less than 1% of the cases of MRSA in intensive care units were acquired within the ICU’s and the prevalence of MRSA in ICU, which deal with the most seriously ill patients decreased by 2%.
A few patients were more at risk of contracting MRSA before being admitted o intensive care units and the report noted that it was difficult to control MRSA when a high population have it on admission. While all patients were screened on admission to ICU’s, there was a large delay in the diagnosis in MRSA, which can take up to 48 hours.
The report recommended an improvement in the time taken to diagnose patients with MRSA and an improvement in isolation room resources to minimise transmission of MRSA in intensive care units.
If you have contracted MRSA after a stay in hospital, you may be entitled to claim compensation. Our firm deals exclusively in the area of personal injury litigation and medical negligence law. Please contact Liam Moloney, Solicitor Naas today at 045 898000 or simply log on to our website www.moloneysolicitors.com for further information.
