Urgent Action Need of the Hour to Combat C.Difficile

The Clostridium difficile infection that has hit Scottish hospitals, calls for urgent action to combat it, the Labour Party has said.

In the aftermath of an outbreak at Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital, Dumbarton MSP Jackie Baillie has called for introducing an independent inspection regime. The infection has already led to a death.

According to the Scottish Government, the inspection procedures were already in place. Within 4 weeks, 8 cases of clostridium difficile were found in just one ward at Royal Alexandra.

Though NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde confirmed that the infection was a contributing factor, but it was not the main cause of a patient’s death. A second patient with the infection also died, but clostridium difficile was not a factor there, the health board said.

Clostridium difficile is a bacterium that is related to the bacterium that causes tetanus and botulism. There are two forms of this bacterium: an active, infectious form that cannot survive in the environment for prolonged periods, and a non-active, "noninfectious" form, called a spore, that can survive in the environment for prolonged periods.

The outbreak at the Paisley hospital followed 55 people getting infected at the Vale of Leven Hospital in Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire, between December last and June this year. The infection was the main cause of nine deaths there and a contributing factor in another nine.

Ms. Baillie was quoted as saying, “Our thoughts are with the families of the two patients who died in the Royal Alexandra. These latest cases show urgent action is needed to rid wards of c.diff.”

She also added that the Scottish Government had shown “consistent complacency over c.diff” and termed self-assessment by hospitals as “woefully inadequate”.

“An independent monitoring and inspection framework must be established, so that we never again witness death on the scale that occurred at the Vale of Leven Hospital”, she concluded.

C. diff spores are frequently found in hospitals, nursing homes, extended care facilities, and nurseries for newborn infants. They can also be found on bedpans, furniture, toilet seats, linens, telephones, stethoscopes, fingernails, floors, infants' rooms, and diaper pails.