Written question asked by Tim Loughton (Conservative) on Monday, 15 December 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 6 February 2004. It was answered by Melanie Johnson (Labour) on Friday, 6 February 2004 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the reasons for wide variations in MRSA bacteraemia statistics between hospital trusts; and whether the variations are linked to the size of the sample numbers used. - Inc ref to http://www.doh.gov.uk/cmo/mrsadata.

Answer: Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the reasons for wide variations in MRSA bacteraemia statistics between hospital trusts; and whether the variations are linked to the size of the sample numbers used. [145043] Miss Melanie Johnson: Generally methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteraemia rates will be higher in trusts that care for more vulnerable patients and that undertake more invasive and high-risk specialist care. A high rate does not necessarily mean that these trusts are poor performers in either infection control or other performance measures but indicate a need for further investigation. For example large teaching hospitals may import infections when patients are transferred in for specialist care. A proportion of bacteraemias in all types of hospital are preventable and the aim is to lower MRSA bacteraemias overall. It is important that all trusts examine their MRSA bacteraemias to assess how much is preventable and to take appropriate control measures. The mandatory surveillance system includes all bacteraemia reports and not a representative sample. Further information on interpreting this complex dataset is available on the Department of Health website at http://www.doh.gov.uk/cmo/mrsadata/

Secondary information