Almost a quarter of hospital trusts are increasing the risk of MSRA and Clostridium difficile by filling wards to “unsafe” levels, The Times can disclose.

According to Department of Health figures, 22 trusts in England recorded bed occupancy rates of 95 per cent or more and nearly half 85 per cent or more. But a leaked report by the department suggests that MSRA rates are 42 per cent higher in hospitals where more than 90 per cent of beds are filled than those that fill less than 85 per cent of beds.

The Liberal Democrats said the figures showed that many hospitals were effectively full while nurses’ groups blamed the problem on pressure to meet waiting time targets.

The proportion of hospital trusts filling 90 per cent or more of beds has risen from 13 per cent five years ago to 23 per cent. Elderly patients are particularly at risk, with occupancy rates on geriatric wards reaching 91.3 per cent, according to analysis of figures by the Liberal Democrats. Secure learning disability wards had a bed occupancy rate of 94.9 per cent, while mental illness wards had 86.8 per cent.

The highest occupancy rate was in East Berkshire Primary Care Trust, which said that all of its 122 available beds were filled during the survey, while the Oxleas Foundation Trust, which provides mental health and disability services for southeast London, said that 453 of its 459 beds were full.

The average occupancy rate in 2006-07 was 84.5 per cent, in line with the past five years but a sharp rise since Labour came to power in 1997 when it was 80.7 per cent.

Professor Barry Cookson, an expert on MSRA, said that an 85 per cent bed occupancy was a “safety level above which we start having problems”.

A report published this month said that C. difficile caused the deaths of 90 patients and affected hundreds more at Maidstone hospital, Kent, between April 2004 and September last year.

Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said: “These figures mean that for a lot of the time, many hospitals are effectively full - and on red alert. As long as this situation continues, it will undermine efforts to successfully combat hospital-acquired infections. It puts staff under unfair pressure and risks corners being cut in order to get new arrivals admitted on time. The system is under enormous pressure.” The Royal College of Nurses believes the true bed occupancy rate could be even higher. Its own survey found that the average rate was 97 per cent, and that more than half of wards were running at full capacity to meet waiting time targets. The number of death certificates that name MSRA as a contributory factor rose from 51 cases in 1993, the first year of recording, to 1,629 in 2005.

Today the Lib Dems will announce a five-point “Florence Nightingale” charter to combat hospital infections. They suggest copying the Dutch approach in which infected wards are closed, patients transferred and staff sent home. They would also give matrons authority over all staff, including contracted cleaners, and roll out super-bug screening programmes to GPs and care homes.

A Department of Health said that although some trusts had higher occupancy rates they still managed to reduce infection rates significantly.

Bed occupancy rates

100%

Berkshire East PCT

99%

Oxleas Foundation Trust

98%

Worcestershire PCT; Western Cheshire PCT; Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust

97%

South Downs Health Trust; Stoke On Trent PCT

96%

Calderstones Trust; Harrow PCT; Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust; Newham University Hospital Trust

95%

Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; George Eliot Trust; West London Mental Health Trust; Derbyshire Mental Health Services Trust; Salford Royal Foundation Trust; Shrewsbury and Telford Trust; Enfield and West Hertfordshire PCTs; Bromley Trust; Camden and Islington Mental Health And Social Care Trust; Royal Brompton and Harefield Trust; Royal United Hospital Bath Trust

Source: Department of Health

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