Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) continue to take a toll in Scotland. A ward at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley has been closed to new admissions after the clostridium difficile (C Diff) bacterium contributed to the death of a patient last week and infections in seven others. The outbreak occurred over four weeks and came after C Diff was contracted by 55 patients at Vale of Leven Hospital between December 2007 and June this year. In that outbreak, 18 patients died as a result of the infection.

Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) continue to take a toll in Scotland. A ward at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley has been closed to new admissions after the clostridium difficile (C Diff) bacterium contributed to the death of a patient last week and infections in seven others. The outbreak occurred over four weeks and came after C Diff was contracted by 55 patients at Vale of Leven Hospital between December 2007 and June this year. In that outbreak, 18 patients died as a result of the infection.

The latest cases are a reminder, if any were needed, that great care and the utmost vigilance are required to keep C Diff and other HAIs at bay. The Health Protection Scotland surveillance agency has produced figures to show, during the period of the Vale of Leven outbreak, C Diff contributed to 285 deaths in Scotland. That is a shocking figure that is difficult to comprehend when medical and public awareness of the risk of hospital infections, and the measures necessary to avoid them, is at a high level; or so we have been led to believe.

There were factors that led to the Vale of Leven outbreak that were, perhaps, unique. The hospital had been under threat of closure for 10 years and a failure to invest in upgrading and maintaining the hospital to the standards required (surveillance systems and staff development also appeared not to be given a high priority) contributed to the conditions that enabled the outbreak to occur.

The area procurator-fiscal for Argyll and Clyde is conducting an investigation into the Vale of Leven outbreak and will report the findings to the Crown Office. The lesson of that outbreak was that all hospitals should be managed, maintained, supported and monitored to the same high standards while they continue to treat patients, regardless of the uncertain future they might face.

Keeping C Diff at bay does not require rocket science or the latest drugs.

It is not a superbug. Certain antibiotics can actually enable C Diff to thrive. The most effective way to prevent its spread is by staff rigorously washing their hands in warm water and cleaning the areas where it forms spores. Old-fashioned practices of which matron would have approved appear to be the key. There can be no complacency when confronting the threat from C Diff and other HAIs.