HOSPITAL chiefs have apologised for serious failures in preventing a superbug outbreak at a Hampshire hospital that led to the death of a pensioner.

Frederick Dart, 80, known to everyone as Bill, fell victim to deadly MRSA while at Romsey Hospital in April after a change of cleaners, an inquest heard.

Hospital bosses blamed cleaning standards not being met, staff shortages, delays in screening for MRSA and failure to isolate patients with the illness.

It resulted in six patients being infected and two wards needing to be deep cleaned.

Today hospital chiefs insisted that they had learned lessons from the outbreak.

Romsey Hospital's associate director of nursing, Paula Hull, told the inquest that the hospital was using agency workers due to staff shortages and had also employed new cleaning contractors, Medirest.

The hearing heard how the infection came to the ward from two patients, one who the hospital knew had MRSA, but failed to isolate because of a falls risk, and another who had been transferred from Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, who they did not know had the condition.

An audit showed that only 87 per cent of staff were following cleaning procedures and results between screenings and results being picked up meant that that anyone on the ward could be a waiting a week to find out if they were MRSA positive.

Ms Hull revealed how the MRSA outbreak had resulted in two wards being closed for deep cleaning from May 22 to June 6 She said: "The cleaning of the ward was not as we wanted it to be. There were some issues about the use of protective clothing and certain procedures were not maintained.

"At the time there was a new contractor for cleaning, and the levels of cleaning were not what they should have been, as soon as we realised this we had daily conferences with the contractors and did daily audits and had rigorous conversations with them.

"There are a number of lessons that we can draw from that investigation. Mr Dart became MRSA positive at Romsey Hospital which led to his deterioration. We are truly sorry about that and we are learning from that."

Retired chef Mr Dart caught MRSA when he was recovering after a fall at home in Laburnum Close, North Baddesley.

Winchester Coroner's Court heard how he had undergone an operation at Southampton General Hospital and was transferred to Romsey Hospital on March 10. After he caught MRSA, he was taken back to the General on April 18 but died on May 19.

The inquest heard Mr Dart suffered from type two diabetes, vascular disease, shingles and had previously had colon cancer.

Senior coroner Grahame Short recorded a narrative verdict and said the ultimate cause for Mr Dart's death was MRSA that came into the ward from other patients.

After the inquest, a spokesman for Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Romsey Hospital, said: "We have closely examined our processes and improved these, as well as providing bespoke training to staff around MRSA and to ensure screening results are shared with patients sooner, always within 72 hours and usually within two days of screening.

"Our thoughts are with Mr Dart’s family and friends and we offer our condolences to them. We take infection risks extremely seriously and are always working to continuously learn and improve the way we work.

"We are confident that the action we have taken has provided additional safeguards against chances of infection outbreaks, and would like to reassure people that Romsey Hospital is a good and safe place to receive care.

“The trust took the decision to move to a single provider of cleaning services, Medirest, to standardise the service across the organisation.

"Previously, we worked with five separate providers. As well as helping us make the best use of our limited resources, having a single provider helps us maintain consistent quality throughout our services.”

William Dart, of Butts Ash Lane, Hythe, told The Daily Echo: "His general day-to-day care was good but it was a catalogue of errors and I hope they learn from it. I would like to know what happened to all the other people who were on the ward at the same time."