KEY POINTS:
Auckland City Hospital has completed what is thought to be its biggest ever cleaning operation as it battles to contain a drug-resistant superbug.
More than 100 cleaners and clinical staff took part in the eight-day disinfection operation that focused on wiping bleach on surfaces to kill the bug,
vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE).
The hospital has been trying to control the bacteria after a patient was found to be infected with the potentially fatal disease.
More than 1000 patients have been tested in the past two months. Three more cases have been found and 33 people have been diagnosed as carriers. No patients have died from VRE at the hospital, but two of the four with the disease have died of other causes. New Zealand hospitals have reported in total up to six cases a year of VRE since 1996, according to data from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research.
Auckland City Hospital's general manager of operations, Ngaire Buchanan, said last night that the VRE disinfection exercise was "most probably the biggest clean-up operation" ever at the hospital.
Nurses moved patients while cleaners disinfected surfaces, beds and mattresses with a sodium hypochlorite solution, before the bed was made up with fresh linen and the patient was shifted back in.
But nurses quickly became involved in doing the cleaning work too, Ms Buchanan said, and some, including clinical charge nurses and nurse specialists gave up their days off to help out voluntarily.
The hospital, including Starship children's hospital, which was also cleaned, has around 1000 beds.
Ms Buchanan was not sure of the cost of the operation, but noted that each patient test - either a faecal sample or an anal swab - cost $12.
It is intended that inpatients coming into the hospital's adult services for the next two to four months will be tested, although it is not yet clear whether inpatients entering Starship and the National Women's Health Service will be tested. Ms Buchanan said final test results from the women's and children's services were awaited to see if they were affected by VRE.
In another arm of its infection control measures, the hospital is emphasising that staff, visitors and patients must wash their hands.
VRE can be serious for sick people whose immune system is weakened. It is not normally harmful unless it enters the bloodstream, when it can be life-threatening. There are a limited number of drugs for the disease, but it is still treatable. The bacteria can be spread by contact with hands, surfaces or contaminated medical equipment. It can survive for several days on hard, dry surfaces like door handles.
Green MP Sue Kedgley reiterated her call for more monitoring of antibiotic resistance in humans and animals, especially chicken flocks fed antibiotics.
But Dr Tim Blackmore, the chairman of Wellington Hospital's infection control committee, said New Zealand already performed "quite a lot of surveillance" in humans for antibiotic resistance bacteria.