TEN DEATHS in the last three weeks at hospitals in Drogheda and Navan have been reported to the coroner following outbreaks of the superbug Clostridium difficile.
The HSE confirmed yesterday that the deaths of eight patients at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth, and of two patients at Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan, Co Meath, have been reported to the coroner.
It will be a matter for the coroner to establish the exact cause of death in each case but the HSE, which runs both hospitals, says it expects a number of these notified deaths will not actually be attributable to C difficile.
However, given that C difficile is a notifiable disease, a doctor is legally bound, it says, to notify the coroner in all cases where a person has died who may have been exposed to or contracted a C difficile infection.
"The coroner is responsible for determining if Clostridium difficilewas the cause of and/or contributory factor to their death."
Meanwhile, the number of patients with the superbug in the Lourdes hospital is beginning to decline.
Last Friday there were 12 confirmed cases, yesterday there were six, but there were a further eight patients with symptoms.
In Navan hospital there are currently two confirmed cases of the healthcare-associated infection and three patients with symptoms.
The bug causes a diarrhoea-type infection in vulnerable patients already on antibiotic therapy for other conditions. In severe cases it can cause death.
Services have been curtailed at both hospitals in a bid to contain the outbreaks.
In Drogheda, elective admissions have been cancelled and a number of beds closed. In Navan, all elective orthopaedic admissions have also been cancelled.
Strict visiting restrictions are also being implemented at both hospitals.
In addition, increased infection-control measures have been put in place at both hospitals; in Drogheda specialist engineers have been drafted in from the UK to decontaminate most of the affected areas of the hospital.
C difficile has been a notifiable infection in the State since May 2008.
Since then more than 3,000 cases of infection have been reported by hospitals across the State to the national Health Protection Surveillance Centre.
Outbreaks of the infection have also been reported at a number of other hospitals in the recent past.
An outbreak at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin last year was linked to the deaths of three patients, while an outbreak at University College Hospital Galway last year was also a contributory factor in a number of patient deaths.
An outbreak at Ennis General Hospital in the first half of 2007 was found to have contributed to 13 patient deaths.