Staphylococcus aureus is a common type of bacteria – about one in three of us carry it on our skin and in our noses without it doing any harm.
However, it can cause infections if it enters the body through wounds or tubes placed in the body.
Meticillin is an antibiotic – a type of penicillin. Meticillin resistant means that meticillin cannot kill the bacteria and another antibiotic will need to be used. If meticillin cannot be used to treat staphylococcus aureus, it is called MRSA.
Keeping hospitals clean and dust free is important but the best way of preventing MRSA spreading is careful hand hygiene by patients, visitors and staff. We expect all of our staff to clean their hands before and after every contact with patients. If you think they may have forgotten, it is your right as a patient to ask them to wash their hands.
Good hand hygiene by patients and visitors is also important. You should ask visitors to clean their hands before and after visiting you.
To assist us in this, and in line with the trust’s MRSA policy, all elective and emergency admissions (with some exceptions) are screened for MRSA.
The overall aim is to reduce the risk of infection from MRSA through screening patients identified as ‘at risk’ from MRSA colonisation (this is where the bacteria is present on the skin but is not causing an infection).
Leaflet on MRSA