HC Deb 13 September 2004 vol 424 cc1469-70W
Mr. Streeter

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many incidences of(a) hospital-acquired infection and (b) methicillin resistent staphylococcus aureus at Derriford hospital, Plymouth have been notified to his Department in each of the last five years. [188446]

Ms Rosie Winterton

Information on the number of hospital acquired infections for in individual trusts is not collected centrally. The Department introduced mandatory reporting of methicillin resistent staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteraemias (blood stream infections) for national health service acute trusts from 1 April 2001. The number of MRSA reports for the three years for which figures are available is shown in the table.

Plymouth hospitals NHS trust
Number of MRSA bacteraemia reports
2001–02 99
2002–03 81
2003–04 98

Andrew Mackinlay

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) which hospitals stock antibiotics against strains of MRSA; and if he will mike a statement; [184422]

(2) which antibiotics are effective against strains of MRSA; and if he will make a statement. [184423]

Miss Melanie Johnson

The use of the description methicillin resistant in methicillin resistantStaphylococcus aureus (MRSA) implies resistance to all penicillin and cephalosporin type antibiotics (beta lactam group of antibiotics). Resistance to other classes of antibiotics is extremely variable.

Most MRSA that occur in the United Kingdom are still sensitive to and may be treated with vancomycin, teicoplanin, linezolid, or quinupristin/dalfopristin. They may also be sensitive to rifampicin, fluoroquinolone antibiotics (such as ciprofloxacin), chloramphenicol and variably to other antibiotics including tetracyclines macrolides (such as erythromycin) and aminoglycosides (such as gentamicin). Trusts have stocks of these antibiotics. Decisions on the antibiotic(s) appropriate for the treatment of any one patient must, therefore, depend on microbiological laboratory testing of the individual strain of bacterium isolated.

MRSA

resistant to all available antibiotics have not as yet been isolated in the United Kingdom.