A LIVERPOOL hospital which had the worst rate of MRSA in the country has eliminated the superbug from its wards for the past 18 months.

The most recent case of the infection at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital in Broadgreen was recorded on February 28, 2008.

It marks a remarkable turnaround for the organisation which was heavily criticised in 2004 for having the highest rate of MRSA for a specialist Trust in the country.

Health chiefs say the result is even more impressive because the hospital carries out high levels of complex surgery, where patients are particularly vulnerable to infection.

Doctors at the hospital famously performed open heart surgery on former Liverpool FC manager Gerard Houllier in 2001.

The Trust, formally known as the Cardiothoracic Centre, is yet to banish superbug C difficile from its wards and has had eight cases since April, but this falls within a government target of 25 cases up to March 2010.

Hazel Holmes, director of nursing at the Trust, said the results are down to a change in the way wounds and intravenous drips are managed: “We looked at where some of these infections were coming from.

“We do a lot of high risk surgery and there was a big risk around patients’ wounds, if it was a big wound and there was an intravenous line going into it.

“This is because if there is MRSA in the wound, it can then pass into the blood, causing a blood stream infection.