July 15, 2011 4.18 pm This story is over 152 months old

Hospital infection rates drop in Lincoln

Good rates: The cases of infection in Lincoln County Hospital and the rest of the county are staying low.

Lincoln county Hospital has managed to reduce its infection rates for the fifth year in a row, according to United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (ULHT).

New figures show that the number of MRSA (pictured) cases in hospitals in the city have reduced by 94% in the past five years, from 32 to 2.

The number of cases of Clostridium Difficile have fallen by 55% in the past four years, from 116 to 52.

There has also been a huge drop in infection rates across the county as the number of MRSA cases in hospitals fell 61% in the past year and C Difficile cases dropped 41% over the past year in the county.

Last year, ULHT reported that between April to September 2010 there were no cases of MRSA in Lincoln County Hospital.

There have been a number of initiatives used to reduce the amount of infection such as deep cleans, raising awareness of hand hygiene and prescribing less antiobiotics.

Director of Nursing and Patient Services at ULHT, Sylvia Knight, is delighted that the number of infections in Lincolnshire’s hospitals has continued to fall.

Knight said: “I am proud of all our staff, patients and visitors who have helped to ensure that we keep our rates of infections as low as possible.

“However, we have more work to do, as we would like to be able to reduce our rates of infection even further, so that we have no avoidable infections at all in any of our hospitals.

“We will continue to work hard to achieve that aim.”

Source: ULHT | Photo: Microbe World