Patients who are suffering from MRSA infections should be sent home to prevent the bug from spreading in hospitals, doctors have said.

Patients who are recovering from a bloodstream infection or an infected open wound are kept in hospital for an average of 11 days. But a report suggests that they pose no risk to healthy adults and nearly one in three of those infected by MRSA could return home after a few days of treatment, if patients were given antibiotics.

The NHS could save millions of pounds in excess hospital stays if people who were infected with the bacteria were treated away from wards.

The study, which was produced by seven experts and the campaign group, the National Concern for Healthcare Infections, suggests that treating people in the community is unlikely to spread illness because it generally only infects through open wounds or medical devices.

Mark Wilcox, a professor of medical microbiology at the University of Leeds and a member of the working group, said that the traditional method of treating an infection with intravenous antibiotics could be replicated easily at home, and that about 30 per cent of cases might be able to benefit in this way.

He said: “People with MRSA infection are not a danger to healthy people, and treating them at home offers multiple benefits in terms of infection control, and reducing NHS costs and resource use.”

The report was funded by Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company, which produces an antibiotic to treat MRSA.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said that home treatment may be appropriate for some, but not all, patients and that it would support the approach being made available.

The latest figures from the Health Protection Agency in November showed a 10 per cent drop in the number of reports of MRSA infections in England, to 1,303 cases from April to June last year.

— Patients being admitted to hospital will be interviewed to assess the risk of them carrying the virulent norovirus that has shut wards across the country.

The “60-second interviews” come as healthcare workers gave warning that the best way to stop the virus spreading was to wash hands thoroughly with soap and water rather than using alcohol hand gels.

Diane Wake, of the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen Hospital, said: “We have developed a 60-second interview. This means that anyone with the virus can be moved immediately into an isolation bed.”

At least 98 wards in 44 hospitals have stopped admitting new patients and are urging people who have been ill not to visit.

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