National Health Stories

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Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Factual: History

Sally Sheard on the characters, innovations and heroic standoffs that have shaped the NHS.

On 5 July 1948, healthcare in Britain became free for all. Sally Sheard reveals the characters, innovations and heroic standoffs that have shaped the NHS.

On 5 July 1948, for the first time anywhere in the world, healthcare in Britain became free for all. Sally Sheard reveals the characters, innovations and heroic standoffs that have shaped the NHS.

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National Health Stories: Policing the Bugs

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Pioneers

Policing the Bugs

BBC Radio 4 - National Health Stories, Policing the Bugs

When MRSA and other hospital bugs hit the headlines, the NHS had to clean up its act.

When MRSA hit the headlines, the NHS had to clean up its act, with the infection control nurse leading the fight against antibiotic resistance.

During the 1980s and 1990s, patients contracting infections in hospital, that antibiotics could no longer treat, dominated the headlines. 

The strict hygienic regimes, so beloved by matrons since the Nightingale era, had been undermined by a reliance on antibiotics. When one bacterium became resistant to an antibiotic, there was always another to fall back on.

But when patients became infected with a bacterium which had become resistant to Methicillin, a crucial antibiotic in the health service's armoury, the defence against the bugs began to crumble. Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, or MRSA, thrived in NHS hospitals and began to spread, largely unchecked, from patient to patient. 

As the numbers of patients contracting MRSA spiralled, the cleanliness of NHS hospitals, and their poor infection control, came under close scrutiny. Clostridium Difficile also emerged, alongside MRSA, as a source of public anxiety.

It was time for the NHS to clean up its act and tackle the spread of antibiotic resistance head-on, with the infection control nurse leading the fight. 

Producer: Beth Eastwood.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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