Patients 'left in excrement'
2007-10-11 14:42
London - Nurses who didn't wash their hands and left patients lying in their own excrement were cited in an official report blaming hospital mismanagement for the deaths of 90 people who contracted a fatal bacterial infection in hospitals in southern England.
"Significant failings" at all levels contributed to more than 1 000 patients being infected with Clostridium difficile, or C diff, which can cause diarrhoea, colitis and other intestinal problems across three hospitals run by the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS trust, the Healthcare Commission said in a report on Thursday.
"The Healthcare Commission has passed the copy of the report to us and that is being reviewed," said a spokesperson for Kent Police, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with force policy.
The report into the spread of the highly contagious bacterium said nurses were often too busy to wash their hands and left patients to lie in their own excrement.
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS trust - which is responsible for the three hospitals investigated - acknowledged that it had not been prepared for "an outbreak of that size and complexity" but had learned from the mistakes.
The trust's Chief Executive Rose Gibb resigned last week.
Superbug infection rates have skyrocketed
Health Minister Ann Keen said the failures, which led to the deaths of patients over a two-and-a-half year period, must not be repeated.
"Trusts must deliver clean, safe treatment to every patient, every time and where senior management and trust boards fail to act, they must be held accountable," Keen said.
Investigations began after a series of complaints about cleanliness, and when the trust claimed there had been no deaths from the bug despite admitting there had been hundreds of cases.
The trust has also introduced extra cleaners and nurses on affected wards and asked family doctors not to send patients with diarrhoea to hospital, measures which will continue until the outbreak ends.
In recent years, Britain's superbug infection rates of bacteria like Clostridium difficile and MRSA have skyrocketed.
In the 1990s, only five percent of in-hospital blood infections were MRSA, the deadly bacteria resistant to nearly every available antibiotic. In past years, that figure has jumped to more than 40%.
Critics blame the rise on overstretched hospitals that do not have enough money or capacity to catch superbug infections early.
- AP