Anger over MRSA summit snub

By Nick Triggle
BBC News health reporter at the Clean Hospitals Summit

MRSA is linked to 1,000 deaths a year

Doctors and NHS bosses have been attacked for snubbing a conference on hospital superbug MRSA.

About 1,400 health professionals have attended the Patients Association's summit on Thursday and Friday.

But the Patients Association hit out after only a handful of NHS trust chief executives and one doctor went.

Politicians, who were also attending the summit to set out how they would tackle the problem, were also critical.

Deaths linked to the superbug doubled between 1999 and 2003 to nearly 1,000 a year, according to a report by the Office for National Statistics in February.

But the government claimed last month it had turned the corner after latest figures showed that the numbers treated for the infection fell by 6% in the last year.

Do they really think hospital acquired infection is not their business? Vanessa Bourne, of the Patients Association

The Patients Association organised the Clean Hospitals Summit to come up with a plan on how to tackle the problem, inviting chief executives from nearly 200 NHS trusts.

Scores of trusts sent officials, but the conference organisers said they were disappointed the top bosses were not there.

Association trustee Vanessa Bourne, who shared a platform with MPs from the three main political parties, said: "There have not been that many doctors and chief executive here.

"Do they really think hospital acquired infection is not their business?

"It is not good enough."

A spokeswoman for the British Medical Association said: "Doctors take the wellbeing of their patients and the problem of MRSA very seriously indeed."

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Paul Burstow said doctors and NHS trust chief executives "should have been" at the conference.

And Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley added: "It is a pity."

Health Minister Lord Warner said it was important everyone in the NHS worked together in partnership to fight MRSA.

A spokesman for the NHS Confederation, which represents health service managers, said: "It is up to chief executives to decide who they should send. It is certainly an issue that is very important."