Pat's Note: That's my view too. These epidemics are not getting any
better.

There is no doubt that the pressure to under report has increased.

The government are now too terrified to release the results of
testing the pigs, if indeed this has been done at all for C.Diff.

 It is not a decision that I would care to defend.


http://www.politics.co.uk/opinion-formers/press-releases/opinion-former-index/health/mrsa-action-uk-high-numbers-c-diff-and-mrsa-deaths-will-continue-$1238430$1220655.htm

MRSA Action UK: High numbers of C.Diff and MRSA deaths will continue 

Friday, 29 Aug 2008 12:19 

MRSA Action UK believe deaths from C.difficile may rise still further
from the analysis of the Health Protection agency figures published
last month. The analysis shows quite clearly that the fight against
this particular bacterium is far from being won. 

Comparing the January to March quarter of 2006 to January to March
2008 shows 31 Hospital Trusts having more cases of C.difficile over
the last 2 years. Our findings make nonsense of the Government’s
comments that we have started to make inroads in controlling
C.difficile in our Hospitals. The 31 Hospital Trusts in question have
increases in C.difficile ranging from 8% to a staggering 400% when
compared to the same quarterly figures of 2 years ago. The average
increase for these 31 Hospital Trusts alone stands at 44.7%. 

Many other Trusts have made very little impact on reducing the
incidence of C.difficile and only a small percentage have made
significant reductions. Further analysis shows C.difficile are no
longer confined to the hospital environment, and that we are beginning
to see outbreaks in the community. 

This is a shocking toll reported by the ONS, and the comment that this
could be due to more complete reporting is questionable. The recording
on death certificates of healthcare infections has been called into
question not only by patient groups but also by the Department of
Health, and our analysis suggests unnecessary premature deaths will
continue until these infections are brought under control. 

Questions over death certificate documentation remain. Whilst the
trend in deaths from MRSA appears to be turning around, a study
published by the Health Protection Agency proves these figures are
inaccurate, there may even be evidence to suggest these could be at
least double due to the anomalies found. The Office for National
Statistics can only publish what has been recorded, and MRSA Action UK
know only too well, from those of us who have lost family members, the
abject failure to recognise healthcare infections where they have
either caused or played a significant part in the end of patients’
lives, and, in the most reprehensible circumstances where this could
have been avoided. 

MRSA Action UK believe the graph showing the downward trend for deaths
from MRSA is window dressing as we know the recording is inaccurate. 

The National Confidential Study of Deaths Following MRSA Infection
carried out in 2007 highlights inconsistencies in the documentation of
MRSA on death certificates. A small proportion of documentation
assessed were not thought to be related to MRSA infection and should
not have had MRSA documented on their death certificate. Conversely
where cases were sampled from patients with MRSA bacteraemia who
subsequently died, neither MRSA nor sepsis was mentioned on nearly
half of the death certificates where MRSA was considered to have
caused or contributed to the patient’s death. 

The study, published by the Health Protection Agency and funded by the
Department of Health, proves that death certificates do not accurately
reflect the contribution of MRSA and other infections to the patient’s
death and highlight the problems of using death certificates as a
source of data on deaths caused by MRSA. 

Patients who die with or from MRSA infection often have complex
medical histories, this and the tendency for certification to be
undertaken by junior medical staff with minimal training, contribute
to the poor level of accuracy. 

Training for medical staff regarding the completion of death
certification using the 2005 guidance from the Office for National
Statistics’ Death Certification Advisory Group, should be supported by
the auditing of death certificates within Trusts, we believe a
significant role for the new Care Quality Commission. 

Until accurate recording takes place the Government will never be able
to tell us the true scale of the problem, of course the victims and
their families will. The Department of Health study was funded from
the public purse, yet we see no evidence to suggest action has been
taken to provide a more open, honest and accountable way of reporting
death attributable to healthcare infections, so that we can feel safe
in the knowledge that there truly is every effort being made to save
lives in all of our healthcare settings. 

With the terrible toll to healthcare infections the Government must
not become complacent, deaths from healthcare infections continue to
rise and this is wholly unacceptable in an advanced nation in the 21st
century. 

As this Government fails to acknowledge the scale of the problem we
are seeing these bacteria become stronger and stronger leaving future
generations a much tougher battle to fight to control them. The
indifference to wanting to identify the true death toll to healthcare
infections is comparable to Nero fiddling whilst Rome burned. This
Government are no different, watching people suffer and die whilst
they play the fiddle with the figures on MRSA and C.difficile. 


Derek Butler 
Chair 
MRSA Action UK 

-- 
Regards
Pat Gardiner
Release the results of testing British pigs for MRSA and C.Diff now!
www.go-self-sufficient.com  and http://animal-epidemics.blogspot.com/