Media Release
Date: 14 January 2014
RUH celebrates 300 days free of MRSA
Staff at the Royal United Hospital Bath are celebrating more than 300 days without any of our patients contracting the super-bug MRSA.
Yvonne Pritchard, Senior Infection Prevention and Control Nurse, said: "Being free of MRSA for more than 300 days is a significant achievement, which is down to the hard work of our staff in maintaining very high standards.
"Controlling and preventing infection is a major part of what we do here at the RUH and reaching this milestone is a real team effort.
"MRSA is mainly spread on hands, so good hand washing is the best way to stop it spreading. Everybody, whether they be staff, patients, or visitors, has a role to play in helping to prevent infection at the RUH by following good basic hand hygiene before and after meals and after using the toilet.
"We have done really well to have gone so long without an MRSA bloodstream infection, but we are not complacent – we are committed to being as safe as possible and our goal is to have not another case ever again." Recent visitors to the hospital will have noticed large posters on walls, and cut out displays of staff near the Atrium advising the importance of handwashing in preventing infection.
Staphylococcus aureus is a very common germ that around 30% of the population carries on their skin or in their nose. Sometimes it can cause skin infections such as boils or abscesses. These infections are normally mild and are easily treated.
MRSA (Meticillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) is a type of Staphylococcus aureus that is resistant to the more common antibiotics that are used.