§ Ms Jenny JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus incidents have occurred in hospitals in the(a) West Midlands and(b) London region in each of the past five years. [44438]
§ Ms JowellInformation on the total number of cases of infection or colonisation with methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is not collected centrally.
540WNational epidemiological data on MRSA are compiled by the Public Health Laboratory service (PHLS) from isolates submitted voluntarily by hospitals in England and Wales for specialist microbiological tests. From these data, the number of incidents of MRSA—three or more patients infected or colonised by the same strain MRSA in a month from the same hospital—is recorded. The numbers of incidents for the years 199–1997 are in the table.
Year West Midlands London Region2 1992 35 216 1993 68 348 1994 169 649 1995 128 943 1996 121 960 19971 1 55 1 491 1 Data for six months only 2 North Thames, North West Thames, South East Thames and South West Thames. The Department is currently discussing with the PHLS ways of improving surveillance systems so as to provide more complete data on MRSA.