CANCER PATIENTS are having their treatments delayed and in some cases are dying because of hospital-acquired infections, the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland (RCPI) said yesterday.
Consultant medical oncologist Prof Peter Daly said at least one in 10 patients receiving intensive chemotherapy was likely to contract a healthcare-associated infection. “I have seen patients who have ended up in intensive care following a serious infection where they might have developed lung failure. They become extremely weak and your capacity to give them chemotherapy may be delayed by weeks or months.”
Prof Daly said: “Then there are other circumstances when a malignancy might potentially be curable but the cure has to be delivered within a timeframe for that to be achieved . . . and if that is delayed during its delivery, that can have disastrous consequences.”
He was speaking as the RCPI published a position paper on healthcare-associated infection in cancer patients.
Infections acquired in a healthcare setting include urinary tract infections, lower respiratory tract infections and septicemia as well as MRSA and Clostridium difficile.
Clinical microbiology professor and consultant microbiologist, Prof Hilary Humphreys, said 5 to 10 per cent of general patients would contract a healthcare-associated infection but cancer patients were at increased risk because their immune defences had been suppressed by the disease and by the anti-cancer therapy.
Patients with cancers that originated in the blood or immune system were particularly vulnerable, he said. The paper recommends that cancer patients with suppressed immune systems should be cared for in single hospital rooms with en-suite facilities.
It points out that 20,000 people develop cancer in Ireland every year “and it is estimated that by 2020 there will be a 107 per cent increase compared with 2000”.
Prof Humphreys said the risk of infections could be minimised by simple measures such as hand hygiene, environmental hygiene, education and sensible use of antibiotics. However, cancer patients needed additional supports such as single rooms.
“We need to have better information and knowledge on what is occurring and what will be occurring amongst this group of patients so that we can intervene early to improve patient outcome,” he said.
Asked if hospital cutbacks would rule out the provision of single rooms to such patients, Prof Humphreys said the investment would make financial sense.
“If you look at a healthcare associated infection that’s preventable, you’re often talking, at a ballpark figure, of twice the cost, and sometimes twice the duration of stay for a patient,” he said.
“Not only is prevention better than cure, but prevention is cheaper than actually the treatment of the infection.”
Leo Kearns, chief executive of the RCPI, said the introduction of centres of excellence would help minimise the risk of infection as it was difficult to ensure that the correct infrastructure and measures were in place to protect cancer patients when multiple hospitals were involved.
See www.rcpi.ie for the paper Healthcare-associated Infection in Patients with Cancer: Identify the Risks and Implement Preventative Measures.
