UK Official Apologizes for Superbug infections
Pastor Dale Morgan
UK Official Apologizes for Superbug infections*
By RAPHAEL G. SATTER
The Associated Press
Monday, October 15, 2007; 5:37 PM
LONDON -- Britain's health chief apologized Monday for an outbreak of a
deadly bacterial infection in hospitals that left 90 people dead, but
insisted the incident was an isolated one.
A report into the deaths by Britain's health watchdog said nurses
working for the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells hospital trust in
southeastern England did not wash their hands and left patients lying in
their own excrement. British Health Secretary Alan Johnson said the
report, which included photographs of filthy hospital showers, sinks and
toilets, was a "horror story."
"On behalf of the government and the (National Health Service), I would
like to apologize to all those ... affected," he told lawmakers at an
emergency session of Parliament.
"But I hope the House will recognize that the awful failures in
Maidstone and Tunbridge are entirely unrepresentative of the standards
of care that patients and the public rightly expect and is delivered in
hospitals across the country."
The report, made public by the Healthcare Commission last week, found
that "significant failings" at all levels contributed to more than 1,000
patients being infected with Clostridium difficile, a potentially fatal
antibiotic-resistant "superbug," at three hospitals run by the trust.
Johnson said the trust's chairman, Lee Jordan, had resigned. The trust's
chief executive quit earlier this month.
The report on the hospitals followed complaints about cleanliness. The
trust has since brought in extra cleaners and nurses at the affected
wards and asked family doctors not to send patients with diarrhea, one
of Clostridium difficile's symptoms.
In recent years, the rate of infection from antibiotic-resistant
diseases has risen dramatically in Britain, although some argue that
figures are climbing due to tougher rules on reporting outbreaks.
Clostridium difficile, so named because it was difficult to grow in a
laboratory when it was first discovered in the 1930s, is one of the most
common hospital-acquired infections around the world and the most
frequent cause of diarrhea in hospital patients.