Huge rise in superbugs deaths (UK Socialised Medicine Alert!)

The Evening Standard ^ | 13 Dec 2002 | Colin Adamson

[UKCajun]

The number of deaths caused by hospital superbugs has tripled in the past decade with London worst hit, new figures show today.

The first major study of its kind into the most common infection, MRSA, comes two months after the Evening Standard alerted Londoners to the growing danger of superbugs, which thrive on dirty wards and poor staff hygiene.

A Standard investigation revealed that more than 100 patients a month in the capital are being struck down by the drug-resistant MRSA infection which, while not always fatal, can kill in hours. Now the situation is being officially recognised with a Public Health Laboratory Service study which says London is the highest risk area in the country. About 5,000 patients a year die due to infections acquired in hospital. significant number of these are a group known as staphylococcal infections which are normally treated with antibiotics. But MRSAmethicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus - also known as Super Staph - resists the standard antibiotic, methicillin.

The new figures show that between 1993 and 1998 a total of 6,723 death certificates stated that staphylococcol infection contributed to death. MRSA was specifically blamed on 1,387 certificates. The proportion of certificates mentioning MRSA shot up from 7.5 per cent in 1993 to 25 per cent in 1998.

Dr Natasha Crowcroft, the public health consultant who carried out the research, warned: "It is shocking that in one of the strongest economies in the world, people are dying of an infection that can be prevented by staff washing their hands properly. If hundreds of people were dying because of mistakes in surgery there would be a public outcry, but this is a preventable problem."

She said hospitals should give high priority to infection control and she pointed out that nearly all other European countries have a much better record than the UK.

"But it is not fair to blame individual doctors and nurses working in difficult, busy environments when it is the whole system that needs improving," she said.

[UKCajun]

As an American living and working in the U.K., I can truly say the hospitals here compared to home are truly archaic and FILTHY. Socialised medicine is a fiasco and a scandal.

God bless American doctors, nurses, and hospital staff!

Question: What is the most famous British w(h)ine? Answer: It's Not Fair!!!

[SpinyNorman]

Socialized medicine: the new black plague?

Let's call this the Hillary syndrome: the inability to come clean when circumstances demand it.

[SpinyNorman]

Socialized medicine: the new black plague?

Let's call this the Hillary syndrome: the inability to come clean when circumstances demand it.

[KevinDavis]

I think someone should put up a website detialing how socialsed medicine really work. Bascially telling the truth.

[mewzilla]

Well, let's not get cocky. I know some folks right here in the US who contracted a multiple drug resistant infection while in the hospital. I know others who contracted some other less serious bugs. Good handwashing procedures don't cost a lot of money to carry out. Just discipline. That would help a lot.

[friendly]

The bad, bad bugs are most assuredly here in the USA, also: Deadly and utterly immune to all anti-biotics. One of my patients died from one several weeks ago.

As for the UK, new hospital building by and large ceased after 1948 when the system was socialized. It is like some kind of time capsule over there with Victorian era open wards in filth.

Same thing in Canada, hardly anything built after 1975, when the socialists "cured" heathcare. Like looking at 1957 cars driving around Havana.

[mewzilla]

I've had my hair curled on more than one occasion by watching medical personnel in the ladies room at a hospital taking less time and care to handwash than I do. Unbelievable. And that can't be blamed on socialized medicine. Lots of other things, yes. But not bad hygiene. For that there's no reason or excuse.

[friendly]

People who do not wash their hands in hospitals will only give themselves anti-biotic immune bacteria. Nature's way of pruning?

[mewzilla]

You don't even need antibacterial soap, or so I've been told. Thorough handwashing with plain old soap will do the job nicely. And if the staff wants to give themselves the Bug That Ate MY Face (I remember that British tab headline), that's one thing. But when their laxness affects their patients, as it surely will, that's something else entirely.

[valkyrieanne]

Socialized medicine kills ... and we do have socialized medicine in the US, too (i.e. medicare, medicaid, free care for illegal immigrants, etc.)

[Vic3O3]

Hey, the US med system MAY be better than that in the UK, but it is still the 8th leading cause of DEATH in the USA, according to a report on the news yesterday.

[litehaus]

Son, who lives and works there, says same thing. Dreads the day he might end up in "The System." For now he has had good luck with company people telling him where to find good PRIVATE doctors........

[UKCajun]

"It is like some kind of time capsule over there with Victorian era open wards in filth."

You are so correct--Victorian era filth still around; open waste bins in corridors; blood on floors; blood stains on ceilings, walls; mud on floors, etc. My solution to the facilities is: 1) Stinger missiles followed by 2) Wrecking ball 3) If building is to be kept, complete gutting followed with chlorine dioxide.

[CJ Wolf]

It is likly that the antibodic hand washing that does go on enhances the resistance of the bacteria. If it's resistant to methicillin what makes you think hand washing will kill it. I think it's an easy scape goat for something they don't understand.

[UKCajun]

Fine until he needs emergency care. Lawyer friend of mine nearly bled to death in ER from a simple slip and fall cut on his forehead.

[FreedomFlyer]

We have socialized medicine--the VA hospitals. They are terrific, aren't they?

[fogarty]

Unfortunately, the US is not immune to MRSA. In fact, in a US hospital this past summer, vancomycin resistance emerged in staph. Which means if that particular strain also picks up resistance to the methicillin family, we are back to the 1940's as far as infection protocols go after surgery.

No, cockiness and arrogance is what led to the US CDC declaring only 30 years ago that the age of communicable diseases was finished.

How foolish we were. You want to see statistics - take a look at the Tuberculosis cases in the United States that are resistant to virtually every class of antibiotics available.

This is a global war alright. And the microbes are winning. We've won exactly one game in this battle, that being smallpox.

[Cicero]

Political correctness is part of the problem here in the US, too. We may not have socialized medicine, but we have public health authorities who protect the right of AIDs victims to spread their disease, and the right of TB carriers to misuse antibiotics and make themselves into walking incubators of mutated strains.

Maybe it would have happened anyway, but big-city left-wing politics has certainly contributed.

[jjm2111]

A British associate of mine told me that anyone who can afford it purchases private insurance. God help us if we ever go to socialized medicine.

[jjm2111]

You are so correct--Victorian era filth still around; open waste bins in corridors; blood on floors; blood stains on ceilings, walls; mud on floors, etc.

Oh my God.