By Gillian Ellison

Published at 11:11, Thursday, 03 May 2012

WEST Cumberland Hospital and the Cumberland Infirmary have had no cases of superbug MRSA for almost two years.

The North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust is one of only four acute hospital providers in the North West not to have had a single case of hospital-acquired MRSA in the last financial year.

In fact, the last time the Trust reported a case of hospital-acquired MRSA was in May 2010.

This makes it one of the best performing in providing outstanding infection control and prevention.

Chris Platton, acting nursing director, said: “We know this is important to our patients.

“Our clinical staff should be congratulated for the year-on-year significant reduction in infection rates.”

The hospitals have dedicated infection prevention teams who have introduced a range of measures across all wards and departments including regular audits; carrying out education and training; introducing hand hygiene measures and all clinical staff are now “bare below the elbow”.

“We must also thank our community which has been working hard with us to ensure they do use the hand-gels when they come onto wards and are mindful of our infection prevention requests such as not sitting on patients’ beds or coming to visit when they are ill themselves,” she added.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk