Superbug fears under microscope

MercyAscot has appointed an independent microbiologist to investigate patients' claims they were infected by a superbug during routine surgeries.

Auckland Mayor John Banks and Commonwealth Games medallist weightlifter John Bolton say they were infected during rotator cuff shoulder operations at the company's private Ascot Hospital at Greenlane.

They contracted an infection six months apart and both ended up having clean-up operations at public hospitals. They also had to take 24-hour doses of intravenous antibiotics for six weeks.

But Dr Richard Fisher, chairman of MercyAscot, said there had been no confirmed reports of superbug outbreaks at the hospital, and he did not expect the review to reveal any problems.

He did not believe the pair had contracted superbugs, but rather the sort of infections that were common in hospitals worldwide.

"There are always some infections because that's normal but there has been no outbreak," Fisher said. "No organism that has been specific or nothing that looks like a pattern infection, which would cause concern beyond normal ... Nobody can run a hospital where there is no infection."

MercyAscot does 16,000 operations a year with an infection rate of "half a per cent," he added.

Since the Herald on Sunday's article last week about Bolton and Banks, the Ministry of Health has referred the matter to the Auckland Regional Public Health Service, which acts as a local agent for infectious disease investigation and control.

Two more patients have since come forward claiming they were infected by a bug during operations at the Greenlane hospital.

Businessman Neville Cole, 47, had a rotator cuff operation on May 28, but by June 18 was complaining to his GP about constant pain, a lump on his arm and stiffness. Two days later he was admitted to Auckland Hospital and had surgery to "wash out the infection". But five days on the infection had not gone.

"They washed the wound again and also removed the three titanium screws and a plastic plug that had been fitted during the original operation," he said. "My frustration is that I am now worse than square one."

University of Auckland business student Sarah-Jayne Chamberlain, 23, had her fourth endometriosis operation at the Greenlane hospital in January.

Several weeks afterwards she says a MercyAscot nurse called her saying "there had been cases of bugs within the hospital and that I needed to go and get my bloods done".

She was found to have an infection and prescribed antibiotics, but an examination showed her wounds were clean.

"I think it would be good if they were open about it," she said. "It's not fair that people think the public system is crap ... when in fact the private hospitals are having the same issues."