Research has linked bed turnover to a rise in MRSA

The study was conducted by the University of Ulster.

It showed the level of MRSA infection in 12 hospital trusts was "directly related to high bed occupancy and fast turnover of patients".

The research also showed hospitals with the highest rates of MRSA also had the fewest cleaning staff and nurses.

Brian Cunningham from the university's faculty of life and health sciences said part of the problem was a shortage of acute hospital beds in Northern Ireland.

"As a result there are high bed occupancy rates in hospitals and the interval between one patient being discharged and another being put in the bed can be short - in the worst cases less than 10 hours," he added.

"If you have a shortage of nurses or cleaners then you wonder if the interval between one patient being discharged from the ward and another being put in the same bed is long enough for proper anti-infection measures to be put in place."

Disinfection

Mr Cunningham said the National Audit Office set an upper limit of 82% bed occupancy in acute hospitals, but most of Northern Ireland's hospitals exceeded that limit.

"When you have high occupancy rates and low turnover intervals combined then MRSA rates increase to a level beyond what would be expected by chance alone," he said.

"Our research shows there is a direct relationship between these factors."

He said rising MRSA rates could be tackled, in part, by ensuring that bed occupancy in hospitals did not rise beyond 82% and by allocating a patient turnover interval which allowed for proper disinfection procedures.

Figures from 2002-2003 showed that MRSA infection was highest in Belfast's Mater Hospital followed by Belfast City Hospital and then the Ulster Community and Hospitals Trust.

The research is being published this week in the Journal of Hospital Infection.