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MRSA in the Courts

There have only been a handful of compensation settlements - seven involving hospital-acquired infections in England from April 2002 to March 2006 - and no admission of responsibility for causing MRSA has been made.

However, Thompsons believe that there is responsibility in law.

Instead of relying solely on the traditional clinical negligence argument, we have started pursuing the NHS by using legislation more common to industrial disputes.

Control of Substances Harmful to Health (COSHH) requires employers to control exposure to hazardous substances to prevent ill health.

We argued that MRSA comes under such a definition and if it applies to staff it should also apply to patients in hospitals.

Lady Clark has now ruled that the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health 1999 regulations not only apply to employees in the Health Service but also to patients. See recent Scottish developments.

The first breakthrough was in July 2005 when Kitty Cope, a pensioner from Bridgend in Wales, won MRSA compensation when she became infected after having a hip replacement.

The hospital involved settled compensation out of court, but admitted it had not followed its guidelines on infection control.

Tony Field, chairman of the MRSA Support victims group, said: "I think this has got the NHS really worried. We should see many more successful claims in the future."

The Department of Health refused to comment on whether it thought MRSA compensation claims should be covered by COSHH.

But a spokeswoman added: "There will be cases where healthcare was negligent and it is reasonable that claims might be made in these cases."