[Margaret Pilkington]

Another thing about Staph Aureus is that something like 30% of the population carry this organism on their skin........so the increase in visitors, visiting times and the fact that patients move around the hospital......to the cafeteria etc means that the bug can travel.

When I first started nursing it was unusual for patients to leave the ward for anything other than diagnostic tests.......visiting was twice a day.......45 minutes each time......there were only ever 2 visitors to a bed.........and patients took a bath before theatre (so if THEY were carrying the Staph Aureus there was some chance that a bath would remove it......albeit temporarily) These days nurses can suggest that patients bathe, but cannot enforce it.......more and more surgery is being done on a day case basis and if a patient says they have had a bath or a shower then the nurse will accept this.
So there is far more to the MRSA debate than meets the eye.

In the Blackburn Hospitals there is a well developed Control of Infection team who do monitor infection rates........and advises on good practice.