Bug outbreak trust 'improved'
Updated on 09 January 2009
An NHS trust at the centre of a scandal involving the bug Clostridium difficile (C diff) has made "substantial improvements", a health watchdog said.
The Healthcare Commission said further work was needed at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in Kent but commended staff for their progress.
Ninety people died as a result of two outbreaks of C diff at the trust in 2006 and 2007. A 2007 Healthcare Commission report found low staffing levels and dirty wards contributed to the outbreaks, and there was evidence that staff left patients to lie in their own excrement.
The trust's chief executive, Rose Gibb, resigned by mutual agreement with the trust over the scandal. No charges were brought by Kent Police and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which investigated the possibility of prosecuting staff.
The Healthcare Commission said the trust had made "huge strides" in infection control and had reported its lowest rate of C diff in three years over the period January to March 2008.
A spot check in October by inspectors still found breaches of the hygiene code, the most serious of which related to the decontamination of equipment in the endoscopy unit. But this problem had been rectified by the time of another visit a month later, the Commission said.
The trust has brought in many new board directors and "infection control is a consistent item at the top of the board's agenda," the Commission said.
Specific wards have been allocated for the isolation of infected patients and there are better standards of cleaning and improved staff training.
The Commission said there was still progress to be made, including on how the trust learns from complaints and incidents and the recruitment of more nurses.
The Healthcare Commission's head of investigations Nigel Ellis said: "This is a very different trust to the one we investigated in 2007. It was never going to be easy to turn things around in just 12 months and indeed, there is still some way to go. But the substantial progress the trust has made to improve the prevention and control of infection is commendable."
These news feeds are provided by an independent third party and Channel 4 is not responsible or liable to you for the same.
