NHS Fife has defended its decision not to go public about a new strain of clostridium difficile linked to the deaths of three hospital patients.
The health board said it stalled on confirming rumours that Fife hospitals were at the centre of an outbreak because relatives had to be prepared for the media interest that would follow.
Medical director Dr Gordon Birnie said: “We wanted to forewarn the relatives of the individuals who had the C. diff that there might be publicity and that took a period of time.”
The board’s reluctance to release information, or identify the hospitals where the cases occurred, was questioned by Professor Hugh Pennington. He warned that lack of transparency could damage public confidence.
News of the new strain of C. diff only emerged after Health Protection Scotland reported there had been two linked deaths at a Scottish hospital in December and January, and a third death at another hospital within the same NHS board last month.
It was the first time the strain, called ribotype 332, had been reported anywhere in the world.
NHS Fife later confirmed it was the board in question but did not identify which hospitals had been involved.
During Wednesday’s operational divisional committee meeting in Kirkcaldy, Dr Birnie said ribotype 332 was “nothing unusual” because it was one of 500 new strains which had appeared.
Dr Birnie said: “As far as I’m aware there is nothing unusual about this ribotype. It doesn’t behave in any different fashion.
“From our point of view, there was nothing surprising about it. All three cases have been investigated and we can link two of them. The third we could not link.”
When asked again by The Courier, the health board would still not reveal the hospitals where the cases had occurred.
Professor Pennington, who is emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University, said: “In my view, the sooner everybody knows the better but you have to be careful you don’t give out information which could identify the patient and breach patient confidentiality.
“At the level of the hospital, what’s wrong with that? It wouldn’t give you much of a clue.
“I think openness is always best. At the end of the day, by being open you keep public confidence that you are actually tackling the problem.
“It was the wrong way round. It should have been announced by the health board. They should have been the first to say because that’s where it started. But it’s easy to be critical.”
Professor Pennington said NHS Fife’s assessment of the risks posed by the new strain was accurate.
“I think on balance there is certainly nothing for the public to be worried about. Experts will be keeping quite a close eye on it to see if there is anything unusual about it.
“It’s very early days. All it really shows is there has been an outbreak.
“It just tells us that C. diff is still getting about, and we have to find out how these bugs are getting about.
“This is a reminder that, with C. diff, although there has been a big reduction in cases, it hasn’t gone away.”
Clinicians and laboratory staff in Scotland were put on alert when HPS announced the cases of C. diff ribotype 332 at the start of the month.