Pledge to halve MRSA cases 'is not achievable'

A government pledge to halve infections caused by the superbug MRSA may never be fulfilled, a leaked memo has revealed.

The internal memo from the Department of Health, sent to ministers by Liz Woodeson, director of health protection, on 20 October 2006, said that tackling hospital infections is more complex than ministers anticipated. The target to halve infections with MRSA by April next year is unlikely to be met, it said. Even if the deadline is extended it may never be reached and plans should be made now for dealing with the publicity fall-out, ministers were told.

The leak comes a month after David Nicholson, the NHS chief executive, made reducing hospital-acquired infections one of the four top priorities for the health service in 2007. A statement from the Department of Health said: "We deplore this leak. This paper confirms that from the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary down, the Government is determined that the NHS should get on top of the problem of MRSA and other infections."

Bloodstream infections with MRSA were 11 per cent down on two years ago, and though progress had been "slower than anticipated" the Government "remains committed to delivering the target", it said.

Much of the rest of the memo, obtained by the Health Service Journal, focuses on how to handle the publicity. Dropping the target would be likely to incur the wrath of No 10 as well as provoking media criticism, but extending or altering it holds similar traps, it says.

The shadow Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, said: "We have consistently called for a search-and-destroy strategy to fight MRSA. It is now time for the Government to run a pilot scheme of this strategy."

* Family doctors are blocking efforts to improve patient safety, according to a report. Progress in reporting medical errors and monitoring performance by primary care trusts has been too slow, the National Audit Office says. Primary care trusts lack management authority over individual contractors.