Ban the bugs

Salisbury District Hospital took delivery of the first system at the end of May. Giving same-day results, this test allows hospitals to screen patients for the superbug û information that will enable infection control teams to act quickly and prevent a hospitalacquired infection. Such infections, of which MRSA is most significant, are estimated to cause 5000 deaths in the UK each year and by being able to act quickly hospitals can reduce significantly the incidence of mortality and morbidity. MRSA costs the NHS around ú1 billion annually, so reducing the incidence of the infection would have a major financial impact. The final evaluation of the BacLite system at British laboratories û including those at Barts and The London and Salisbury District NHS Trusts û showed that the test can achieve in five hours what current microbiological methods take two days to deliver.