Hospitals MRSA fines to reach half million mark

Leeds hospitals are to have another fine of £100,000 imposed due to their failure to deal with the MRSA drug, taking their total amount owed to £500,000.

A £100,000 fine is imposed on Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for every month that the number of MRSA cases exceeds an agreed target. There were four cases reported in February which, added to the four times the target was breached between April 2010 and the end of January, takes the fines to the half million mark.

The 11 months to February saw a total of 23 MRSA cases reported which exceeded the allowed number of 18, although it was down from 37 the year before.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals director of informatics Alison Dailly said that the trust failed the target for the month, “as the number of bacteraemias reported is significantly above the trajectory, which allows only one MRSA case per month between November 2010 and March 2011. The trust is therefore forecast to either underachieve or fail the indicator for 2010/11”.

Chief nurse, Ruth Holt said, at a meeting of hospital directors, that they were treating the issue of MRSA very seriously and that performance management arrangements had been increased. She added that there had been increased pressure over the winter but they were focussing now on improved performance.