2005 press releases

MP "shocked and concerned at MRSA findings"

Lewes MP Norman Baker, around half of whose constituents regard the Royal Sussex in Brighton or the Princess Royal in Haywards Heath as their local hospital, has expressed his deep concern that the NHS Trust running those hospitals has registered the third worst results in the country in terms of MRSA infections, according to new government figures.

According to the government figures the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust comes third bottom of ALL NHS Trusts in England in terms of the MRSA rate per thousand bed-days.

Commenting on this, Norman says:

"I regularly receive letters from constituents, concerned about the cleanliness of our hospitals. These figures demonstrate all too clearly that those concerns are well founded. Patients in our local hospitals are by definition vulnerable in health terms and therefore keeping hospitals clean and minimising the risk of infection is paramount and even more important than elsewhere.

"I am meeting the Chief Executive of the Trust on Friday and will be raising this important matter with him. To argue as he does that his Trusts MRSA rates are higher than elsewhere because 'we treat very sick patients' does not strike me as a very convincing excuse. There are after all very sick patients in every hospital, nearly all of which perform far better than our local NHS Trust in terms of MRSA rates.

"I welcome the fact that the Trust says that it takes this matter seriously and it is now incumbent upon them to produce an urgent and detailed action plan to tackle the incidents of MRSA and to give this matter the priority which the hospitals need and my constituents expect."

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