The health of hospital patients is increasingly under threat from "superbugs" - microbes which have developed a resistance to antibiotics - an official report warned yesterday.
One in 10 people patients in our hospitals develops an infection during their stay, partly because poor facilities mean hospital staff do not wash their hands often enough, Prof Hilary Humphreys of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland said.
Unless the problem is tackled, we could see "a return to the pre-antibiotic era of untreatable infections", the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, warned.
He was launching a strategy to control anti-microbial resistance in Ireland, prepared by the scientific advisory committee of the National Disease Surveillance Centre.
The strategy document says MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), one of the main superbugs, has been endemic in a number of large hospitals in Dublin since the 1980s. It is also found in nursing homes, according to the report.
"The current level of infection-control support both in hospitals and in the community is inadequate," it says. Preventive measures must be put in place in the hospitals and hand washing or "equivalent methods of hand decontamination" must be reinforced "and compliance improved".
Overuse of antibiotics helps microbes develop a resistance to them and measures to reduce inappropriate use of these drugs form a key part of the strategy.
The public should also be encouraged to avoid overuse of detergents, cleaners and toiletries which contain anti-microbial agents. Up to 80 per cent of all antibiotics are prescribed by GPs and the strategy document says family doctors are given insufficient information and education on the topic.
All doctors, both in the community and in hospital, should have expert advice available to them every day of the year on the treatment of infections. A system must be developed to monitor the use and supply of anti-microbial drugs, it says, and the "tight legislative controls" on the prescribing of the drugs must be maintained and enforced.
It also calls for a network of laboratories to help deal with the problem. A key cause of the spread of infection of hospital patients "is the unfortunate overcrowding in hospitals and lack of separate facilities for infectious patients," Prof Humphreys said. The provision of single rooms for infectious patients could help to reduce infection, he added.
Resistant bacteria are most likely to affect people who are in a weakened physical condition, such as people who have had surgery - and there are increasing numbers of such patients in the hospitals, he said.
Ireland has a high rate of MRSA compared to other northern European countries, Mr Martin said after publication of the strategy. "We also have a high rate of penicillin resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, the commonest cause of pneumonia in the community."
The strategy document, A strategy for control of anti-microbial resistance in Ireland, can be downloaded from the website of the National Disease Surveillance Centre at http://www.ndsc.ie