The HSE’s confirmed an outbreak of superbug CPE at St Luke’s General Hospital for Carlow and Kilkenny.
It’s resulted in the closure of the Medical 1 GEMS and Stroke Unit to new admissions.
Infection prevention and control precautions have been put in place at the local facility.
Here’s the statement issued to KCLR this morning:
“A number of patients with Carpbepenemase Producing Enterobacterales (CPE) were identified in St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny which resulted in the closure of the Medical 1 GEMS and Stroke Unit to new admissions. Full infection prevention and control precautions were put in place, in line with the National Guidelines”.
“St Luke’s General Hospital Carlow/Kilkenny has fully implemented the National HCAI AMR Taskforce recommendations for screening to detect patients with CPE. These patients were identified due to implementation of the national CPE screening programme. The infection prevention and control team continue to work with staff to ensure best practice is followed in line with Hospital Infection Control Policy and national best practice guidelines for management of CPE”.
“The Infection Prevention and Control Team has an ongoing surveillance programme for identifying patients colonised or infected with resistant micro-organisms. The surveillance programme was successful in identifying the patients, above, allowing for prompt action by the infection control team and ward staff in line with Hospital Infection Control Policy and national and international best practice guidelines in this area. Incidents and trends in infections are monitored and discussed on a monthly basis at the Hospital’s Quality and Patient Safety Committee and at IEHG Group level”.
