Fifty percent of patients at a local long-stay unit tested positive for MRSA. Dungarvan GP Dr. Jim Stacey found that 13 of 26 patients he tested were MRSA carriers.
Waterford GP Dr. Bill Moore said: “We send our patients into the hospitals and take care who we send in. They should inform us when they return patients to us MRSA-positive. It is the least they should do. How can you approach this problem when you don’t know it is there in a certain area?”
Dublin GP Dr Terry Maguire believes that many places like nursing homes and long-stay units have a problem with MRSA because they are never empty, so there is no time when they can be thoroughly cleaned.
One possible solution stressed by Dr Moore are more isolation facilities and a “separate cohort of nurses for these isolated patients.”
