MRSA petition calls for inquiry

A woman who says she contracted the MRSA superbug in a hospital is taking a 6,000-name petition to London.

Moya Stevenson from Sutton-in-Ashfield, Notts, had elective surgery at Kings Mill Hospital in February 2004.

She was left with a serious infection after the surgery and her abdomen took six months to heal.

The petition from MRSA UK Action Group calls on the government to launch a full inquiry on what it calls "a national scandal".

Hole in abdomen

"It is not just about clean hands - it is about looking at the hospital environment as a whole," Ms Stevenson said.

"We need to ask, 'where did we lose control of infection control and how can we regain that control?'," she said.

"I was kept at home for about six and a half months with a huge hole in my abdomen that took that length of time to heal."

A spokesman for Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs King's Mill Hospital, said: "All hospitals will have a certain amount of MRSA, much of which is brought into the hospital on patients themselves, or from visitors.

"We recognise it as a problem and enforce strict cleanliness guidelines.

Innocent victims

"We ask all staff and visitors to ensure their hands are clean, by both washing them and with the use of alcohol gel, which is available on all wards."

The trust's campaign includes posters in toilets about hand washing and has resulted in a reduction in the cases of MRSA, a spokesman said .

Ms Stevenson said the action group was taking the petition to Downing Street and would then lay a wreath at Westminster Abbey at the Innocent Victims Memorial.

"We have met senior politicians in the past and the meeting today is with members of the Commons health select committee," she said.

The group wants mandatory reporting of all cases of all hospital-acquired infections, including MRSA.