Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 200: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children if her Department has issued policy instructions on MRSA; the number of incidences of MRSA infections in hospitals here; the ratio of infections to patient numbers; the way this compares with other EU states; the procedure for informing a patient and relative when an MRSA has been detected by hospital staff; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8063/06]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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In the context of the Estimates for 2006 and the 2006 service plan for the Health Service Executive, HSE, I wrote to the chairman of the board of the HSE setting out our priorities for 2006. In this regard I highlighted the need to identify the necessary structures and processes that are required to control the emergence and spread of health care associated infections, including MRSA. In a subsequent letter to Professor Drumm, chief executive of the HSE, I raised the issue about the communication of information to patients infected with MRSA. Hospital staff need to clearly discharge their existing legal and ethical responsibilities in this regard.

For the purposes of the surveillance, prevention and control of MRSA the health protection surveillance centre, HPSC, collects data on MRSA bacteria, also known as bloodstream infection or blood poisoning, as part of the European antimicrobial resistance surveillance system, or EARSS. EARSS collects data on the first episode of blood stream infection per patient per quarter. EARSS was designed to allow comparison of antimicrobial resistance data between countries and possibly regions but not between hospitals. The EARSS data, which is published on a quarterly basis by the HPSC, showed that there were 553 cases of MRSA reported in 2004. The figure for the first nine months of 2005 is 454. According to the HPSC the rate of MRSA observed in Ireland is high and compares with the United Kingdom, France and southern European countries. The lowest rates are seen in the Netherlands and in Scandinavian countries.

This year Ireland will participate in the Hospital Infection Society's Prevalence Survey of Health Care Associated Infections to be carried out in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The survey will provide the Department and the Health Service Executive, HSE, with accurate and comparable data on the prevalence of health care associated infections, including MRSA, in acute hospitals in Ireland. The data gathered from hospitals can also be used to compare with similar data being obtained in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.