Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

I thank the Cathaoirleach for facilitating me to raise in the Senate the need for the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, to outline what action she intends to take following the deaths of 16 people in St. Columcille's Hospital, Loughlinstown, County Dublin, as a result of hospital-acquired infections and whether the Government intends to order an investigation into this matter.

The Minister for State at the Department for Health and Children, Deputy Brendan Smith, may have seen or heard about the "Panorama" programme about this problem in England where many people have died from this hospital-acquired infection. So successfully has C. difficile taken hold in English hospitals that it now contributes to the deaths of four times as many people as MRSA. We must be careful and vigilant with regard to this infection. It is extremely disturbing that 16 people have died in St Columcille's Hospital and we must ask how many people around the country have died from this infection. It is critical that we put in place the best possible mechanisms at national and regional level in every hospital to prevent the spread of this infection.

The "Panorama" programme was terrifying. There are timely lessons from the investigation that was done in the UK regarding the outbreaks in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust. The programme makers interviewed nurses and other people who had been working in those places under very difficult conditions. Wards were overcrowded and staff were under pressure, very similar conditions to what we have in hospitals here. I would be most concerned that we are not taking this infection seriously enough and that we are not putting in place enough mechanisms and cleanliness routines to deal with the spread of this infection. It is different to MRSA and it needs a different approach, although there are some similarities in the preventive steps we have taken concerning MRSA.

Since I became a Senator I commissioned a study in MRSA. What is clear is that we have a very high rate of infection in this country and that we must have a stronger search and destroy policy in order to beat this infection. The facts that have emerged regarding St Columcille's suggest that there was no microbiologist in place. Why has it taken so long to fill the position of microbiologist at that hospital? Will there be an investigation into what happened there so that we can learn from it? We can then ensure that we do not have a similar situation in other hospitals in the country resulting in the deaths of people from this infection. It is imperative that we put in place the sort of safety standards needed if this is not to be repeated in other hospitals.

We are paying for the failure of the Department to put in place comprehensive enough plans to tackle hospital acquired infection. It is clear that we need more isolation rooms and a search and destroy policy and we must learn from other countries, particularly from the Netherlands which has managed to deal with this infection. I look forward to hearing what the Minister of State has to say on this matter.