Royal Surrey Doing All It Can to Tackle Infection

Infection rates slashed during the last year

Dr Christopher Tibbs, Medical Director and Director of Infection Prevention and Control said:

"We are disappointed that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has only registered the Royal Surrey with conditions as we are now 100% compliant with the hygiene code.  We were asked to register with the Care Quality Commission when we had just received our report from the Healthcare Commission asking us to address some issues with six of the 43 of the sub duties in the hygiene code.  We made it clear at that point we would be compliant by the 31^st March and we are. 

"We have sent evidence of our compliance and we are now in discussions with the CQC about this."

Rates of MRSA bloodstream infections and C. difficile have fallen dramatically at the Royal Surrey County Hospital during the last year.

The number of hospital acquired MRSA bloodstream infections fell to just nine during 2008/09 compared to 24 during 2007/08.  This is a fall of 62.5% in just one year, which is well below the national average.

The national target for yearly cases (April 08 to March 09) of MRSA is 15 and the Strategic health Authority NHS South East Coast set a tougher target of 12 for hospitals in the South East, which has also been exceeded. 

The Royal Surrey also had the lowest C. difficile rate in Surrey for the first three quarters of 2008 and between July and September 2008 the lowest rates of C difficile in the South East Coast region.  There were only 84 cases during the whole of the last year, compared to 200 cases in 2007/08.

Dr Tibbs adds:

"These dramatic falls in the number of both MRSA and C.difficile infections is an incredible achievement and is down to the hard work of the Infection Control team and dedication of all the staff at the Royal Surrey in maintaining cleanliness and hygiene.

"We have not had an avoidable hospital acquired MRSA bloodstream infection for 149 days and are hoping that this trend will continue well into 2009 - 10."

A great deal of progress has also been made in dealing with issues raised by Healthcare Commission's Inspection report in January 2009. 

The Healthcare Commission inspected the Trust's compliance with the Hygiene Code in September 2008 and identified a number of areas for improvement.  The Trust has:

- Recruited additional staff for the Infection Control team and improved some of the administrative processes.

• - Had a major drive on infection control training during February and March and more than 1,000 staff were trained during that period. There will be further training held over the next month.
• - Additional cleaning staff have been recruited and trained and, if necessary, existing staff have been retrained.

Dr Tibbs adds:

"We remain completely committed to tackling infection and patient safety and have made a great deal of progress in the last few months to solve some of the issues raised by the Healthcare Commission.

"But our rates of infection speak for themselves and I can reassure everyone using the Royal Surrey County Hospital that it is very safe and there is a very low risk of infection.

For further information about infection control at the Royal Surrey please click here.