Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

The Government has a plan. I understand Fine Gael recently held a meeting that was addressed by my good friend, Dr. Maurice Nelligan, who told the audience that half of them had MRSA. Deputy Twomey is a doctor and knows that one can swab people's hands and they may have it and one can swab their noses and they do not, or vice versa.

The action plan is being led by Dr. Doorley, Dr. Kelleher and Dr. Hynes of the HSE's medical team, with others. I met them two weeks ago to discuss the plan and I have mentioned some of its requirements such as the recruitment of specialist nurses and surveillance scientists and antibiotic pharmacists. It involves an education programme with general practitioners and the public because, as the Deputy is aware, the main reason for the increased incidence of MRSA is the over-prescription of antibiotics. This has been shown worldwide and the countries that do best are those that have in place an active programme with general practitioners and patients. It involves a helpline to assist patients to draw the attention of the authorities to matters about which they are unhappy, rather than expecting patients or their families to complain at local level, which the Government understands can often be difficult.

The plan also involves the swabbing of staff. Will we swab visitors? A host of measures are involved and the statistics I cited regarding the comparison between Ireland and England, Wales and Northern Ireland demonstrate we are better. I do not boast about this because an incidence of 4.9% is still not good enough. I would prefer to see Ireland reach the levels that obtain in the Scandinavian countries or Holland in which the rates are substantially lower. While that is the target we must set for ourselves, it will take us some time to reach it.

There is a major programme of training under way within the HSE in respect of this issue. I refer to the general practitioner programme and the recruitment of staff. In addition, there is the entire issue of hygiene. As the Deputy is aware, the standards of hygiene that apply when one visits a food production or pharmaceutical company are substantially higher than those in hospitals. I visited a company recently in which one was obliged to cover one's hair, shoes and so on. We probably need to reconsider the standards that apply to those of us who visit hospitals, particularly those of us who visit seriously ill patients.

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