HC Deb 17 March 1997 vol 292 cc464-5W
Mr. Brian David Jenkins

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will list the hospitals in the west midlands that have had recorded incidents of MRSA since 1992; [19721]

(2) how many (a) cases of and (b) deaths from MRSA have been recorded in (i) the west midlands and (ii) west midlands hospitals in each year since 1992; [19719]

(3) how many cases of MRSA have been recorded in Walsgrave hospital, Coventry in each of the last five years, broken down by age bands of 10 years; [19720]

(4) what has been the percentage change in the annual incidence of MRSA in west midlands hospitals from 1990–91 to 1995–96. [19722]

Mr. Horam

Information on the total number of cases of infection or colonisation with methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus is not collected centrally. Some health authorities monitor the occurrence of MRSA, but these are likely to be subject to local variations in the type of data collected and the methods of collection used.

Data on the occurrence of MRSA compiled by the public health laboratory service are derived from isolates submitted voluntarily by hospitals in England and Wales for typing.

The data held by PHLS of the number of hospitals in the West Midlands health region reporting incidents of MRSA from 1992 to 1996, the number of patients affected and the year-on-year percentage change of number of patients affected are shown in the table. The names of individual hospitals are not available. An incident is defined as three or more patients with the same strain of MRSA in a month from the same hospital. It is not known in how many of these cases MRSA contributed to or caused death.

Incidents of MRSA: West midlands health region 1992 to 1996
Year Number of hospitals reporting incidents Number of patients affected Year-on-year percentage change of patients affected
1992 11 200
1993 17 677 +239
1994 21 2,180 +222
1995 22 1,448 -34
1996 17 1,293 -11

Source:

PHLS.

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