HOSPITAL chiefs are on target to bring down rates of MRSA and are finally screening every single elective patient for the deadly superbug.

There were no cases of MRSA across Worcestershire’s three main hospitals in October and 100 per cent of elective (non-emergency) patients are now being screened.

There have been seven cases of MRSA infection recorded in patients so far this financial year, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospitals, must have under 15 cases for the year if they are to hit their target.

Helen Blanchard, director of infection prevention and control, said at a meeting of the acute trust board: “We continue to perform well against our target, which is good news for patients.”

She said the amount of investment needed to hit the 100 per cent screening target was very high considering the low numbers of emergency patients who had the infection (screening costs £300,000 a year).

Screening was at about 96 per cent in June even though the trust was supposed to hit the target by April, leading to criticism from Harry Turner, one of the board’s non-executive directors.

Higher risk groups for MRSA include patients from care homes but these patients have already been screened for some time and the trust plans to move towards the screening of emergency patients who are far more at risk of dying because of the superbug.

Mr Turner said: “Congratulations on an outstanding performance, particularly the achievement of the MRSA screening target. That’s fantastic.”

He said he hoped the trust could record fewer than 11 cases for this financial year – there were 11 recorded cases of MRSA last year – so it could show it was still improving.

The trust, which runs Worcestershire Royal Hos-pital in Worcester, the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch and Kiddermins-ter Hospital, also had an unannounced visit from the Care Quality Comm-ission (CQC) in October, the national watchdog for NHS trusts.

The visit was to establish whether the trust is meeting the new regulation on ‘healthcare acquired infections’ and complying with the Hygiene Code.

Of the 15 measures inspected, the CQC found no areas of concern and two areas that needed to be improved. The trust has so far recorded 72 cases of c.difficile occurring beyond two days of admission, which means they were most likely acquired while a patient was in hospital rather than before they were admitted.

The trust must get under 215 cases for the year in total (the national target) and 198 cases for the year in total (local target set by NHS Worcestershire).

Your Worcester News reporter was the only member of the media at this meeting.