University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) is proud to reveal that it has not had a case of MRSA since 12 November 2012.

The success is the result of continual infection prevention and control awareness and appropriate action to reduce the spread of infection through cross contamination.

Executive Chief Nurse Kay Fawcett said she was delighted that the Trust had reached its ultimate goal of being MRSA free.

She said: “Keeping MRSA at bay for a whole year is a huge achievement, one that we should all be extremely proud of.

“Last year (2012/2013) we reported 5 cases of MRSA – if we compare that to the previous decade when we reported 169 cases of MRSA for the year 2002/2003, you can really see how far we have come.

“Over the years we have honed clinical practice, raised awareness of the importance of hand hygiene and put in place robust strategies for infection prevention and control.

“As part of this the Trust investigates all infection incidences to determine the root cause (known as a root cause analysis) so that lessons can be learnt and practice can be refined to prevent further incidences – and we have learned a lot from this.

“As standard, all invasive devices used, for example catheters, are monitored and the introduction of a new system for blood collection has proved to reduce cross-contamination.

“A multi-disciplinary group also reviews any clinical practice which may affect the onset of surgical site infections, to ensure the best possible practice is used to minimise risk.

“As a result we have seen a fantastic improvement in infection prevention and control and seen infection rates plummet over the last five years.

“The challenge for us now is to maintain this for as long as possible.”