Patients half as likely to contract hospital infections at Epsom, St Helier and Sutton hospitals (From Sutton Guardian)

Patients half as likely to contract hospital infections at Epsom, St Helier and Sutton hospitals

5:00pm Tuesday 25th September 2012 in News By Hardeep Matharu

Patients at Epsom, St Helier and Sutton hospitals are half as likely to contract a hospital infection as patients at the average hospital, according to a new report.

Figures in the Health Protection Agency’s national report show that, on average, six per cent of patients will have a healthcare associated infection, such as MRSA or Clostridium difficile, during a hospital stay - but the figure for Epsom, St Helier and Sutton hospitals is three per cent.

Pippa Hart, director of nursing, said: "These new figures are great news for our patients and visitors, and are testament to the hard work that all of our staff, from our cleaning teams to our doctors and nurses, have put in to driving down infections. 

It’s also thanks to our patients and visitors, who are obviously careful to follow our infection prevention rules.

"However, we all know that just one infection is one too many, so we can’t be complacent."