Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 94: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the steps being taken to address the issue of hospital acquired infection; the number of cases in each hospital in the past 12 months of suspected or confirmed infection; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8123/09]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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Tackling Health Care Associated Infections (HCAIs), including MRSA, continues to be a priority for the Government and the Health Service Executive (HSE). HCAIs are not a new phenomenon and have always been a potential complication of medical treatment, especially in hospitals. This is the case worldwide. It should be noted that if a patient is diagnosed with a bloodstream infection at a given hospital, it does not indicate that the infection was acquired at that hospital. Many bloodstream infections are acquired in the community but only diagnosed upon admission to hospital. Also a patient may have acquired the infection in one hospital but the infection may be diagnosed on transfer to another hospital.

A new National Surveillance System has been established by the HSE to collect data and provide information on a quarterly basis to monitor HCAIs in our health system. This data has been compiled and published for 2006, 2007 and the first 3 quarters of 2008. There follows in table format an extract of the relevant information for the Deputy, taken from the recent reports of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre. The table gives the number of MRSA cases by acute public hospital for 2007 and the first 9 months of 2008. Most of the variation in reported numbers of S. aureus bloodstream infections between hospitals can be explained by differences in hospital size, activity and patient populations. At present there is no way to adjust the data to allow for these differences and hence direct comparisons between hospitals are not possible.

The overall proportion of MRSA was lower in 2007 (38.5%) compared to 2006 (42.4%) and the most recent figures show that MRSA infections for the first nine months of 2008 have fallen by 3.8% compared with the same period in 2007 and 7.2% when compared with 2006. Other measures taken to reduce the incidence of HCAIs generally include the appointment of additional infection control staff, education campaigns for healthcare staff and the general public around the prudent use of antibiotics and the use of designated private beds for isolation purposes where required for patients who contract HCAIs. In addition, new environmental building guidelines to inform infection control policy in all new builds and refurbishments have recently been published by the HSE. I am satisfied that significant steps are being taken to reduce the rates of HCAIs generally and to treat them promptly when they occur.