Not all claims related to health care associated infection (HCAI) can be identified. The following table shows those claims where methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and/or Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) are regarded as one of the injuries.
Information on HCAI-related claims prior to 1999 is not available due to the coding systems in place at that time, which do not allow analysis for HCAIs.
Claims data by notification year (notified to trust) for claims where MRSA and/or C. Difficile are recorded as one of the injuries (as at 31 December 2007) are as follows.
Notification year Open claims Claims closed with no damages Claims settled with damages Total claims 1999-2000 0 1 1 2 2000-01 0 3 0 3 2001-02 0 2 8 10 2002-03 3 15 24 42 2003-04 4 34 28 66 2004-05 10 47 15 72 2005-06 35 50 12 97 2006-07 90 26 12 128 2007-081 101 5 4 110 Total 243 180 107 530 1 Denotes data to date for current period. Source: NHS Litigation Authority.
The following table gives data collected from the voluntary reporting system from 2002 to 2006 for the nine most common causes of bacteraemia (bacterial bloodstream infections) and for Clostridium difficile (C. difficile), which is associated with diarrhoea and not the blood stream. These data are not available by trust or by financial year.
These organisms are associated with infections that are transmitted mainly or partly within hospitals.
Organism 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Escherichia coli 12,709 15,052 15,741 16,961 18,079 Coagulase negative staphylococci 6,604 8,609 10,091 11,708 14,943 Staphylococcus aureus 12,895 14,603 14,173 14,065 13,648 MRSA (Percentage) 42.5 41.2 39.7 39.6 37.9 Enterococcus spp 4,421 5,611 5,887 6,477 7,109 Klebsiella spp 3,515 4,169 4,639 4,853 5,198 Streptococcus pneumoniae 4,163 5,135 4,526 4,971 4,553 Pseudomonas spp 2,382 2,969 2,897 3,069 3,477 Enterobacter spp 1,874 2,256 2,284 2,314 2,418 Proteus spp 1,662 1,882 1,818 1,805 1,845 C. difficile 26,357 33,201 40,414 47,022 51,145 Source: Healthcare Protection Agency laboratory reports (voluntary reporting system).
The increase in bacteraemias is partly due to better reporting, surveillance and testing and may also reflect a changing hospital population, with more patients who are vulnerable to infection through conditions which compromise their immune systems being treated.