Patients at risk from short-term fight against superbugs, say doctors

12 April 2012

Doctors attacked ministers today over their "short-term" approach to ridding hospitals of superbugs.

The British Medical Association said current tactics would not wipe out hospital-acquired infections such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile.

In a report published today, the BMA said reducing overcrowding and understaffing in hospitals should be the priority.

Instead, the Government has concentrated on "short-term" measures such as "deep cleans", banning doctors from wearing white coats and encouraging the use of alcohol hand gel.

Dr Jonathan Fielden, chairman of the BMA's Consultants' Committee, said: "It's not enough for politicians to announce new initiatives that are just sound bites."

Research shows the higher a hospital's bed occupancy levels, the higher its MRSA rates.

But the number of hospital beds in the UK has dropped by more than 25,000 in seven years, while the number of patients being admitted has increased.

Dr Fielden said more needed to be done to relieve this pressure with a long-term strategy.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in