Is it finally curtains for the Superbug? Common sense is behind a new product, designed to curb the spread of MRSA

Common sense is behind a new product, designed to curb the spread of MRSA

While government ministers and scientists alike struggle to explain the shocking rise in deaths caused by virulent MRSA bugs, a Midlands firm has applied simple logic to come up with a potentially revolutionary development.

Marshall Contracts, a long time supplier of contract blinds and curtain track to hospitals have developed an inexpensive disposable curtain system that looks set to help in the fight against secondary infection that in some cases has forced the closure and sealing off of whole wards.

The product is the brainchild of company director Laurence Marshall, who first thought of it when watching nurses taking routine blood samples. He noticed that much of the equipment, like needles, gloves and aprons, was disposable, but that after the procedure, the nurses manually drew back the privacy curtains, potentially transferring infection from the patient onto the material.

Although all hospitals have a policy of changing curtains, they are under-resourced to carry out the procedure every time a new patient arrives. Conventional curtains have other problems associated with them too. The change over process is very labour intensive, loss and damage occur all too often in the cycle of laundering.

The new curtains come with a specially developed clip-off snap-on mechanism allowing a typical 6 bed bay to be changed in a matter of seconds, a phenomoinal time saving compared to existing methods. So, at last it looks as though fresh curtains for every patient is a realistic possibility.

Testing of the new product at Birminghams Heartlands hospital hasnt come a moment too soon as earlier this year a National Audit Office report claimed that hospital acquired infections kill at least 5,000 people in the U.K. each year.

New Scientist magazine reports that fabrics may be at least partly to blame for the problem, while researchers in Ohio, from the Shriners Hospital for Children in Cincinnati say "Staphylococci and enterococci survived for days to months on polyester, suggesting such drapes could act as reservoirs for these bacteria"

The new product goes into full production next month and orders have already been placed by various health authorities anxious to combat the problems that dirty curtains create.

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RELEASE DATE: IMMEDIATE

CONTACT:

For Marshall Contracts - Laurence Marshall 0121 772 8485 (mobile: 07812 011860) email: info@marshallcontracts.co.uk - web www.marshallcontracts.co.uk

For Birmingham Heartlands Hospital -- Judith Room (Infection Control) 0121 424 2000

For Sir Robert McAlpine -- Steve Land 01384 262749

s.land@sir-robert-mcalpine.com

BACKGROUND

Marshall Contracts was established over 20 years ago.

Based in Yardley the firm employs 15 staff, involved in the manufacture and installation of contract blinds and curtain track to the private and public sector. Recent orders have included the fitting of curtains and cubicle curtain track throughout the new Hereford and Swindon PFI hospital projects. Sir Robert McAlpines have just awarded Marshall Contracts the blinds and hospital cubicle works at the major Russells Hall Hospital PFI project.