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| Bury Free Press, 27 June 2005 |
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| MRSA levels in West Suffolk Hospital are on the rise, placing it in 136th place out of 173 health trusts nationally. |
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| The news comes as MPs and health chiefs hold emergency talks in the face of a financial crisis which could see patient services cut. |
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| Richard Spring, MP for West Suffolk, met Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Strategic Health Authority's (SHA) chief executive at the House of Commons on Wednesday. |
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| He is also due to meet the chief executive and chairman of Bury St Edmunds' acute hospital today to discuss its massive £7.4 million debt. |
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| Mr Spring said: "I am shocked at just how appalling the situation has become. |
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| "I really could not be more deeply concerned about this crisis, which is having a serious knock-on effect on my constituents." |
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| He added: "We have never seen cuts before in provision of service but now it seems inevitable we will. |
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| "My meeting with the SHA produced a promise from the new chief executive to control the debts and I sincerely hope he does." |
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| Levels of the drug-resistant superbug MRSA – methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus – in the West Suffolk Hospital rose by 16.2 per cent in April 2004 to March 2005 compared with the previous year. |
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| With 43 reported cases of MRSA bactaraemia in the same period, the levels per 1,000 bed days were 0.21, compared with 37 cases at a rate of 0.18 in April 2003 to March 2004. |
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| The survey for the Department of Health showed that nationally the rates of infection had dropped by 6.1 per cent in 2004/2005. |
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| MP David Ruffley said both the financial crisis and the MRSA increase could be firmly laid at the door of management. |
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"You would not run a whelk stall like this. The Primary Care Trust has been giving Richard Spring and myself fantasy football figures and, as far as the MRSA goes, I would simply say it is not good enough."
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| A spokeswoman for the hospital said that a breakdown of quarterly reports on bactaraemia levels showed a downward trend. |
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| She added the figures did not distinguish between patients who had acquired MRSA at the hospital and those who took it in from other hospitals, nursing homes and the community. |
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