CASES of the superbug C Difficile at Liverpool’s main hospital trust have risen by almost a third during the past year, according to new figures.
Despite incidents of the hospital infection falling nationally and regionally, the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals Trust recorded 184 cases of the infection between April and June this year, compared to 140 during the same period in 2007.
Many other hospital trusts in the region – including Arrowe Park and Aintree – have seen a decrease and some others a small rise.
However, the Royal says more recent figures for June to September 2008 show cases have significantly fallen to 104, due to new steps taken by the trust.
Diane Wake, director of nursing and patient safety and director of infection prevention and control at the Royal and Broadgreen, said: “We took direct action to reduce our infection rates because we knew they were higher than they should be.
“We have now seen a massive drop in infection rates – we were averaging 20 cases per week and we’ve already more than halved that figure.
“This is a dramatic reduction and reflects the stringent measures we have put in place to improve patient safety.”
A spokesperson also added that 47 cases of the April to June total were acquired within the community.
At Arrowe Park hospital, in Wirral, cases have fallen from 135 to 81 and at North Cheshire Hospital in Warrington, cases have nearly halved year on year, from 100 to 51.
Kath Holbourn, director of nursing and governance at the hospitals, said: “These figures show a dramatic decrease in the numbers of C-Diff infections we have seen over the last few months. Patients can be assured by these figures that our programme of work around reducing infections is paying dividends.
“It’s the largest fall in cases in the North West region.
“It’s the result of hard work by our staff and new initiatives to improve the care for patients at risk of infection – such as those who have been on long courses of antibiotics.
Our specialist ward for infection control at Warrington Hospital is helping prevent the risk of infection spreading and leading to better outcomes for patients who develop infection.
“We’re also working closely with GPs in the community to reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics in high risk patients.
“There’s still work to be done but these huge drops in numbers are good news and show that we’re providing better, safer care for our patients.”
lizawilliams
