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Winning the battle against hospital acquired infections
Written by Communications Team   

Over the past year, Ashford & St Peter's Hospitals NHS Trust has make excellent progress in ensuring a reduction in hospital acquired infections. Since April 2009, the Trust has declared 9 cases of MRSA bacteraemia out of a maximum target of 14. Only 3 of these cases were contracted within the hospitals and the remainder were patients who came into hospital with a community acquired case of MRSA bacteraemia.

The Trust has also dramatically reduced the number of cases of clostridium difficile, recording 53 cases for 2009/10 against 118 in 2008/9 and 248 in 2007/8. In January, February and March this year a total of 7 cases were recorded, which is the lowest quarterly number since records have been kept.

Said Chief Nurse Caroline Becher: “Any case of hospital acquired infection is one too many, but these figures show the progress and commitment we’ve been making. The Infection Control team were runners up in the ‘Pride in our Team’ category at the recent Staff Achievement Awards and I’m delighted with their efforts. They have really pulled out all the stops to ensure that the right messages are cascaded throughout our hospitals and staff are on board in their efforts to keep these infections to an absolute minimum.”