Pre-screening for MRSA in Surgical Patients?

By Hannah Brown in In the news on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 @ 09:12

I recently had an oesophagoscopy as a day-case at Manchester Royal Infirmary.  Shortly after my referral by my ENT consultant I was summoned to the hospital for a pre-operation health test.  I anticipated the weighing, the blood pressure testing, even the ECG, but I didn’t see the swab coming.

The nurse politely explained that it was a pre-admission screening for MRSA, and that if I did indeed test positive for MRSA I would not be able to be admitted until it had been treated, a scheme that will now be extended across the country.  A swab was waved around my groin area, and that was the last I heard of it.  It wasn’t invasive, and the only inconvenient thing was that I’d had to leave work early to make another trip into the centre of Manchester and battle hospital parking, but it did save time when it came to admitting me on the day as I didn’t have to go through the rigmarole of being weighed and measured.

6-7% of all patients admitted carry the MRSA bacteria on their skin when they arrive at hospital.  My Mum contracted it after an operation to remove her kidney, so I know firsthand the impact of the bacteria on recovery and healing and the amount of nose creams, hand and body wash she went through trying to fight it off.  For the small amount of inconvenience an extra trip to the hospital cost me, I’d much rather have that than the alternative.