British health chief apologizes for deadly bacterial infections at hospitals

Britain's health chief apologized Monday for an outbreak of a deadly bacterial infection in hospitals that left 90 people dead, but insisted the incident was an isolated one.

A report into the deaths by Britain's health watchdog said nurses working for the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells hospital trust in southeastern England did not wash their hands and left patients lying in their own excrement. British Health Secretary Alan Johnson said the report, which included photographs of filthy hospital showers, sinks and toilets, was a "horror story."

"On behalf of the government and the (National Health Service), I would like to apologize to all those ... affected," he told lawmakers at an emergency session of Parliament.

"But I hope the House will recognize that the awful failures in Maidstone and Tunbridge are entirely unrepresentative of the standards of care that patients and the public rightly expect and is delivered in hospitals across the country."

The report, made public by the Healthcare Commission last week, found that "significant failings" at all levels contributed to more than 1,000 patients being infected with Clostridium difficile, a potentially fatal antibiotic-resistant "superbug," at three hospitals run by the trust.

Johnson said the trust's chairman, Lee Jordan, had resigned. The trust's chief executive quit earlier this month.

The report on the hospitals followed complaints about cleanliness. The trust has since brought in extra cleaners and nurses at the affected wards and asked family doctors not to send patients with diarrhea, one of Clostridium difficile's symptoms.

In recent years, the rate of infection from antibiotic-resistant diseases has risen dramatically in Britain, although some argue that figures are climbing due to tougher rules on reporting outbreaks.

Clostridium difficile, so named because it was difficult to grow in a laboratory when it was first discovered in the 1930s, is one of the most common hospital-acquired infections around the world and the most frequent cause of diarrhea in hospital patients.