The hospital that has been MRSA-free as long as JFK was President…
January 25th, 2012
A Manchester hospital trust has notched up an incredible 1,000-plus days without a single case of MRSA bacteraemia – around the same length of time as some momentous eras in history including JFK’s presidency of the USA and Anne Boleyn’s marriage to King Henry VIII.
The achievement makes Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust the best acute general hospital in England for stamping out MRSA bacteraemia, the potentially deadly infection that can occur when MRSA bacteria get into a patient’s bloodstream – for example, through surgical wounds, drips, catheters or open areas of skin.
Now the Trust, which runs Trafford General, Altrincham General and Stretford Memorial Hospitals, is thanking patients, staff and hospital visitors for their role in this and encouraging them to keep washing their hands to keep MRSA at bay for another 1,000 days.
The new poster campaign asks people to “play their part in history” and frames the extraordinary achievement in comparison with momentous global events that lasted about 1,000 days.
They include ‘Anne of the 1,000 days’ – the length of time that Anne Boleyn was King Henry VIII’s Queen before being beheaded, and JFK’s 1,035-day term as President of the USA until his brutal assassination in November 1963. Other posters commemorate the 900-day siege of Leningrad in World War II, during which more than 600,000 Russians starved to death as a result of a Nazi blockade.
On a lighter note, the campaign also pays tribute to the 1,001 nights of the Arabian tales in which Scheherazade saves her life by telling fantastical bedtime stories with tantalising cliffhangers to her husband, the Sultan, thereby persuading him not to kill her in the morning.
Morag Olsen, Interim Chief Executive of Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “We are immensely proud, but far from complacent, of our outstanding achievement in preventing MRSA bacteraemia. Every single staff member, patient and hospital visitor has played a part in this by washing their hands, which is why we are thanking them and encouraging them to help us keep MRSA at bay for another 1,000 days.
“We also carry out thorough MRSA screening, use aseptic techniques known to reduce infection risk when inserting drips and cannulas, and have incorporated features that combat bacteria and viruses into all our hospital refurbishments.”
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Contact:
Emer Scott, Head of Communications, on 0161 746 2945 or emer.scott@trafford.nhs.uk
