Surge in the number of cases of terrifying hospital superbug after NHS relaxes hygiene rules
Hundreds more patients fell ill with Clostridium difficile between April 2014 and March 2015 than in the previous year
Increase came after system for fining hospitals was weakened
Bucks Fizz star Cheryl Baker, whose mother-in-law died of C.diff warns bug could come back in a big way
By Stephen Adams Health Correspondent For The Mail On Sunday
Published: 19:46 EST, 26 September 2015 | Updated: 02:22 EST, 27 September 2015
The number of cases of a terrifying superbug in NHS hospitals has surged after the Government ignored warnings – and relaxed the rules on fighting infections.
Hundreds more patients fell ill with deadly Clostridium difficile – known as C.diff – between April 2014 and March 2015 than in the previous year.
The increase, from 13,361 to 14,165, came immediately after the system for fining hospitals with too many cases was dramatically weakened.
Health bosses decided to raise the number of allowable cases of C.diff in most hospitals and slash the fine for each ‘excess’ case from £50,000 to £10,000. When the changes were introduced in April last year, The Mail on Sunday warned they could lead to more people contracting the bug, which causes debilitating diarrhoea and can even eat through a patient’s bowels, causing blood poisoning.
But Ministers pressed on regardless. The six per cent rise – 804 cases – is the first time there has been an increase in C.diff since compulsory recording began in 2007. Bucks Fizz star Cheryl Baker, whose mother-in-law Doreen Ford died of the bug in 2006, said: ‘C.diff is such a virulent, potentially life-threatening bug, that you can’t leave it to chance. It could come back in a big way – and we can’t let that happen.’
She said she believed the fines had been cut because more and more hospitals were struggling to balance their books. Some were fined millions under the tough old system.
She said: ‘We can’t let people die, as my mother-in-law died, simply because we have not got the budget.’
In one example, at the Royal Bolton Hospital, Lancashire, the number of allowable cases was increased from 28 to 48. Doctors were also given the right to decide which cases were ‘avoidable’ – and hence counted towards a fine – and which were ‘unavoidable’.
Public Health England (PHE) has launched an investigation to ‘better understand’ what is happening.
Dr David Jenkins, consultant medical microbiologist and head of infection prevention at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, said the fact hospitals were fuller than ever could be contributing to the rise in C.diff. He said: ‘A study we published in 2010 showed that if you increase your bed occupancy rate over 80 per cent, the risk of C.diff increases by about 50 per cent.’
An NHS England spokesman said: ‘The NHS has managed to reduce C.difficile infections by 75 per cent since 2007/08 and not all remaining infections are preventable, with many picked up outside of hospital.’
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