Death Toll From ‘Superbugs’ Is Soaring

Deaths linked to hospital superbugs have increased dramatically, according to figures published yesterday. Between 2004 and 2005, the number of deaths recorded as associated with MRSA rose 39 per cent and those that mentioned Clostridium difficile rose by 69 per cent.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that mentions of C. difficile on death certificates rose from 2,247 in 2004 to 3,807 the following year, while mentions of MRSA rose from 1,168 to 1,629.

Critics last night said that Government waiting time targets, “savage” bed cuts and a continued failure to deal with hospital hygiene were behind the steep rises.

Katherine Murphy, of the Patients Association, said: “Healthcare acquired infections are a patient’s main fear. Our worry is that these figures will continue to rise as other priorities take precedence. Only two weeks ago the Government promised to make infection control one of its top priorities. Yet its own announcement to further reduce waiting times by ’round the clock operations’ will inevitably harm these efforts.”

MRSA is in a group of bacteria called Staphylococcus aureus that has developed antibiotic resistance to all penicillins. The proportion of mentions of S. aureus bacteria on death certificates that were MRSA rose from 61 per cent to 78 per cent.

Death rates for C. difficile almost trebled among men from 13.1 to 37.6 per million and more than trebled in women, from 12.8 per million to 38.9 per million. They doubled for MRSA in men from 12.5 to 25 per million, also between 2001 and 2005 in England and Wales, and more than doubled from 6.7 to 14.5 per million for women.

The figures show the num-ber of death certificates that gave MRSA as the main cause of death in England and Wales rose from 15 in 1993 and to 467 in 2005. C. difficile was recorded as the primary cause on 531 certificates in 1999, rising to 2,074 two years ago.

In November 2004 John Reid, the then Health Secretary, set a target of reducing by half the number of MRSA infections by April 2008. Last month, a leaked Department of Health memo said the target was unlikely to be met.

Health Minister Lord Hunt said: “It is a major challenge for the NHS and a top priority for Government.”

Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said: “Labour’s savage bed cuts over the past two years have allowed deaths to grow to this appalling level.”

Norman Lamb, Lib Dem health spokesman, said: “In hospitals where beds are filled to bursting point, nurses are not able to isolate patients and clean wards in order to beat the bugs.”