The Prime Minister has apologised to a mother whose son contracted MRSA on an NHS ward, and revealed that hospitals are working on a two-hour detection test for the superbug.
Ruth Wollacott, whose 21-year-old son, James, has been left unable to walk because of the infection, received the letter after she accused Tony Blair last month of using her case for political purposes.
She first met him in April, shortly before the election, when he promised to look into her concerns. She handed him a list of 'hidden victims' - people such as her son - who have never been classified as MRSA sufferers by hospital trusts, but have nevertheless been diagnosed with it.
But when she tried to follow up on the lack of proper recording of MRSA cases, she received a standard reply saying the PM was too busy to deal with it, and she was passed on to the Department of Health.
After The Observer took up the Wollacotts' case, Downing Street assured her that Blair would be making contact. Last week, she received a four-page letter from him, signed personally, in which he expressed his dismay that the system he had set up to receive personal letters from people he had met had 'failed'.
'Can I begin by saying how deeply sorry I was to hear about what happened to your son,' he wrote. 'It is an appalling story and it makes me more determined than ever to tackle the problem of MRSA and other serious infections acquired in our hospitals.
'As I said when we met, tackling MRSA and all healthcare-associated infections is a key priority for the NHS and this Government. It, I promise, remains so.'
His letter then details the initiatives that he hopes will tackle such infections. There is a national target to halve the number of MRSA bloodstream infections in hospitals by 2008, and trusts are now having to collect much more data about the infections.
Blair also revealed that, by the end of the year, he would have the first results from a trial of a new, two-hour test for MRSA screening. These results 'will show if these methods can be used to improve patient care and... reduce the incidence of MRSA'.
For the Wollacotts, however, the problems continue. James, who contracted MRSA from a knee operation in 2003, needs physiotherapy and a further operation, but his local primary care trust in Havering, Essex, has not yet agreed to fund the physiotherapy, which means that the family may have to borrow money to pay for it.
James, now 21, can walk only with crutches. His future as a maintenance worker looks doubtful, and he has been on benefit for two years. His mother has had to give up her full-time job to help look after him.
'I do appreciate the letter from Mr Blair, and I'm sure he means well,' said Mrs Wollacott. 'The trouble is that the NHS acts in an entirely different way. No one wants to take responsibility for the terrible accident that befell my son. He very nearly died and now his whole future is uncertain.
'If, as the Prime Minister says, he wants my son to make a full recovery, why are families like ours left struggling for the basic care we need? Why will no one pay for physiotherapy to help a 21-year-old man rebuild his life? Mr Blair has sons - he must be able to understand what that would feel like.'
Since the election, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has announced that trusts must get to grips with the superbug problems. The government has claimed there are signs of progress, as the number of cases in October-March 2005 was 6.4 per cent lower than in October-March 2004, when 3,940 cases were recorded.
Some hospitals appear to be achieving dramatic reductions, thanks to measures which tackle all hospital infections. At the Hammersmith, the MRSA rates fell by 35 per cent in a year, after making every head of directorate accountable for infection control.
It has also reduced the number of bed moves a patient experiences, as this prevents the bugs being transmitted so easily. Dr Alison Holmes, director of infection protection and control, said the key to it was getting every member of staff to take it seriously.
'There's been so much emphasis on nurses without an emphasis on doctors, and not enough on senior managers,' she said. 'I think there's been a big change in attitude and awareness.'
