This article is from page 24 of the 2008-07-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 24 JPG
THE Health Service Executive (HSE) has hired two temporary consult- ants in response to the concerns of a consultant microbiologist that Ennis General Hospital was at further risk from a C-difficile outbreak.
The HSE revealed in April that 21 patients who contracted the superbug at the hospital in 2007 had died last year.
Records released to The Clare Peo- ple through the Freedom of Infor- mation Act show that the Limerick-
based HSE consultant microbiologist, Dr Nuala O’Connell, wrote to Ennis hospital manager John O’Connell on April 9 to express her concerns.
‘“T am frustrated and deeply disap- pointed from a patient care point of view that neither the second consult- ant microbiologist sanctioned by the A&E initiative nor the recruitment of an infectious disease consultant has progressed,’ she wrote.
“Investment is needed in both hu- man resources for the acute and community settings, plus in newer diagnostic technologies, to provide
timely results, to enhance microbi- ology and infection control and pre- vention service provision to 24/7 365 days a year. HSE management needs to address same as a matter of urgen- cy to prevent further incidents of this nature from occurring.”
In response, a HSE spokesman said that a temporary consultant micro- biologist was providing two sessions per week at Ennis and a temporary consultant in infectious disease had sO MUIKC mI MIIoEe.e
Dr O’Connell made her comments in a reply to a letter from Mr Doyle
who raised what he said was a ser1- ous anomaly in the system whereby the infection control team was not notified of C-diff cases until several days after detection via computer.
Mr Doyle said: “I feel that this prac- tice creates a significant risk and may lend itself to an adverse event for the index case and onward transmission to other patients and request direc- tion notification by phone of infec- tion control.”
In response, Dr O’Connell said that the infection control queue for the in- fection control and prevention nurses
(ICPN) at Ennis was updated imme- diately when a C-diff result become available.
‘The result doesn’t even await full authorisation by either a senior scien- tist or me,” she said.
‘The lab invests much time in tele- phoning wards with important results across the network. I suggest that the wards take ownership of their results and communicate same to the ICPN so that a culture of infection control by all disciplines is engendered as it is, after all, everyone’s responsibil- AA