Hospitals with the worst superbug infection rates are named and shamed

Superbug shame: Leeds General Infirmary is part of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust which topped the MRSA league table

A smaller hospital just five miles away from the Newcastle Trust – South Tyneside NHS – recorded only 19 cases.

The results for MRSA infection will also cause concern. Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust recorded 33 patients contracting the deadly bug, putting it at the top of the league table. It was ­second top of the C. diff table, with 264 cases.

But Southampton University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which treats roughly as many patients as in Leeds, reported just four MRSA cases – eight times fewer than Leeds.


Small trusts in Poole and Basing­stoke recorded no cases of MRSA at all, putting the larger units to shame. Other trusts performing badly in both infection tables were University Hospital of South ­Manchester NHS Foundation Trust, Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust and Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

No hospital managed to record zero cases of C. diff.

The figures, released by the Department of Health, come days after the Government announced that all hospitals will have to ­publish weekly infection rates
as part of a drive to increase NHS transparency. Until now, trusts supplied monthly updates. Eventually, the Government aims to publish infection rates by each hospital ward, which would make all staff accountable.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: ‘The NHS should aim for a zero-tolerance approach to all healthcare-associated infections. We are publishing infection data weekly so people can see which trusts are doing well and which ones are lagging behind.’

The figures relate to 12 months between April 2009 and March this year. The ten hospitals with the highest number of both superbug strains were all large units, many of them affiliated with ­universities. The ones with lowest infection rates were the smallest, specialist hospitals.