Concerns about Niagara hospitals grow as number of C. difficile dead rises to

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Concerns about Niagara hospitals grow as number of C. difficile dead rises to 16

By Mark Brownlee, The Canadian Press | The Canadian Press – 1 hour 59 minutes

ago

TORONTO - A chorus of concern about the management of a number of hospitals in

Ontario's Niagara region is growing amidst an outbreak of Clostridium difficile

that's been linked to the deaths of 16 patients.

The patients were being treated at three hospitals experiencing clusters of

cases of the bacterial disease: four have died at the Greater Niagara General

Hospital, 10 at St. Catharines General Hospital and two at the Welland Hospital

since the outbreak was declared May 28.

The three centres are run by the Niagara Health System, a network of seven

hospitals serving 434,000 people around Niagara Falls and St. Catharines.

Protesters will hold a rally outside the Greater Niagara General Hospital on

Wednesday to voice their displeasure with the way the hospitals are being run.

Organizers said the outbreak of the disease, which causes severe diarrhea in

certain vulnerable patients as a result of taking antibiotics, is just the

latest example of how the network has mismanaged the hospitals.

" We believe the NHS has been ignoring the crisis in health care for a while and

I think this particular issue, the C. difficile, was the thing that had our

council say, 'We've had enough,' " said Niagara City Coun. Wayne Gates.

The Niagara Health System took too long to alert the public about the health

concerns arising from C. difficile, said Gates, noting that health officials

first learned about the outbreak May 12, but didn't alert the public until more

than a month later.

This comes after the closure of emergency departments in two hospitals in the

area.

" My priority is to keep us focused on the outbreaks, so not get distracted by

the politics but make sure that we are focused internally on getting us out of

the outbreak and keeping us from getting into any further outbreaks, " said Dr.

Sue s, president and CEO of the Niagara Health System.

" That's our main area of focus. "

The hospitals have taken a number of measures to prevent further spread of the

bug, s said. Those steps include restricting the number of visitors to

the hospitals, hiring more cleaners and bringing in two infection-control teams.

The Niagara Public Health department is confident the network has responded in

the appropriate manner, s added.

Patients who regularly take antibiotics or have compromised immune systems — in

many cases the elderly — can be particularly vulnerable to C. difficile, which

is typically spread in hospitals through contact with bodily fluids.

Outbreaks of C. difficile can usually be avoided if staff recognize the signs

early and take measures to prevent the bacteria from spreading, said infectious

diseases expert Dr. Simor.

" When outbreaks occur, it's often because of a failure of infection-control

measures or a failure in antibiotic utilization or some combination of both, "

said Simor, head of microbiology and infectious diseases at Sunnybrook Health

Sciences Centre in Toronto.

Failure by health-care workers to wash their hands frequently enough, to place

patients in isolation or to clean hospitals properly " could certainly contribute

to the emergence and spread of such an outbreak, " said Simor, adding that he

doesn't know enough about the outbreak in the Niagara region to say whether that

was indeed the case.

s did not respond directly when asked what caused the outbreak, saying

only that a level of C. difficile is present in most hospitals.

Liberal MPP Kim Craitor and Ontario NDP Leader Horwath will also attend

Wednesday's rally.

" The C. difficile issue that has so tragically befallen the people of the

Niagara Health System, the patients, is just the latest example of the fiasco

that continues to roll in the Niagara Health System, " said Horwath.

Horwath wants an independent inquiry to examine how the Niagara Health System is

being managed.

The Ontario government is monitoring the situation and is not directly involved

in trying to contain the bug or trying to identify the reasons for the outbreak,

said on, spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care.

" There could be a review down the road, it's difficult to say, " said on.

" Today what we're most concerned with is just dealing with the outbreak as it's

happening today. "

on added that the provincial government brought in new monitoring

requirements more than two years ago, which includes a mandate that hospitals

report all C. difficile cases.