THE Oireachtas health committee wants the government’s chief medical officer to appear before it every three months to explain what progress is being made in fighting the MRSA superbug.

John Moloney, the Fianna Fail TD who chairs the committee, says that identifiable responsibility must be given to officials in order to restore confidence in the health service after 10 years of inaction on the issue.

A report commissioned by the Department of Health and given to the health boards in 1995 recommended practices to prevent outbreaks of MRSA but was never acted upon.

There were about 50 cases of the disease in 1995 and now there are more than 500 per year. Seven people with the bug have died in the past fortnight.

The committee will vote this week on whether former health board officials should be called to explain why the recommendations were ignored. However, Moloney has decided to conduct quarterly reviews of health authorities’ progress.

“The biggest single issue with the Health Services Executive is whether they are going to appoint somebody to be held responsible in each hospital and each region for MRSA,” said Moloney.

Jim Kiely, the chief medical officer, will be called to report on the issue next March and then on a regular basis afterwards.

John McGuinness, the Fianna Fail TD from Kilkenny who chaired the first meetings of MRSA and Families, a lobbying group, said that the health authorities’ reaction to the bug was a continuing failure.

“The reaction to MRSA, which seriously debilitates and can lead to death, has been neglectful,” he said.

“We’re allowing human beings to be infected with MRSA and in some cases to die and there’s only a door bell ringing instead of an alarm.”

Times Recommends

• Times Charity Appeal: SolarAid
• Is it Black Monday all over again for Dubai?
• Behind the scenes at the biggest deal