Most people fear hospital infection-poll

The vast majority of people in Ireland are worried about getting an infection such as MRSA if they go into hospital, according to the latest irishhealth.com readers' poll.

The findings come after a recent expert report showed that patients who acquire an infection while in hospital are 7.1 times more likely to die, and that that MRSA infection costs the Irish health system over €23 million a year.

While MRSA rates are reported to be declining in Ireland, we still have one of the highest rates in Europe. Ireland's rate of MRSA bloodstream infection is currently the fourth highest in a European league table.

The latest patient-reported statistics on irishhealth.com's Rate My Hospital service how that the overall rate of healthcare-acquired infection in Irish hospitals is just over 7%, but is as high as 13% in some hospitals.

The most recent HSE statistics, from 2007, show that the rate of healthcare-associated infection in hositals was around 5%.

In our latest poll, we asked readers how worried they would be about getting an infection such as MRSA if they went into hospital.

The results showed that 84% of poeple are worried about the danger of getting a hospital-acquired infection if they went into hospital.

Sixty-three per cent said they would be very worried, 21% said moderately worried, 10% said slightly worried while only 6% said not worried at all.

Among the comments from readers were:

"My sister is in a Dublin hospital where she has yet again got MRSA - she has been a patient on an ongoing basis at this hospital for the last 18 years as a renal patient and has caught it on a least five occasions while in this hospital."

"My father spent three months in hospital and visiting him every day opened my eyes to the poor hygiene standards in the hospital. If it had been a private business the staff would have been sacked immediately. I witnessed a patient being showered before a bypass op in the same ensuite that a patient with MRSA had just showered in. Doctors and nurses went from bed to bed in intensive care without washing hands."

A recent EU-wide survey showed that more than two-thirds of Irish people felt they were likely to contract  hospital-acquired infection of they were admitted to hospital. This was the fifth highest rate in the EU.

View our latest poll results, comments and results of previous polls here

See also 'Patients lift lid on hygiene, infection'

[Posted: Wed 05/05/2010]