HOSPITALS in East Lancashire are struggling to meet its target for limiting the number of C-diff cases in its wards.

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Royal Blackburn Hospital and Burnley General Hospital, has a target for the current financial year of just 50 C-diff cases.

But by the end of May the trust had experienced 13 cases, more than double its intended trajectory of six.

This has since risen to 17, and in order to achieve its target the trust must not exceed three to four cases per month for the remainder of the year.

Clostridium difficile bacteria are naturally in the gut of around two-thirds of children and three per cent of adults.

It does does not cause any problems in healthy people, however, some antibiotics that are used to treat other health conditions can interfere with the balance of 'good' bacteria in the gut.

When this happens the bacteria can multiply and produce toxins, which cause illnesses such as diarrhoea and fever.

Most people make a full recovery, but in rare cases the infection can be fatal.

Speaking at East Lancashire Hospital’s latest board meeting, Val Bertenshaw, director of operations, said four cases had been recorded in June.

Rineke Schram, the trust’s director of infection prevention and control, said it was outperforming last year’s figures, but struggling to meet tougher targets set this year.

She said: “It’s a very tight tolerance level that we have this year.

“If you look at purely absolute numbers and compare that against other hospitals and the fact we’ve done well in the past, that has given us a low tolerance.

“Of course that is the right thing to do and we want to continue to improve.

“We’ve had a bad start. June has been better and July has been good so far.

“We’re actually continuing to improve on last year, but we’re not improving quickly enough.”

She said the trust employed an antibiotic pharmacist last month to tackle the problem and would be carrying out an audit of all the antibiotics it uses.

Mattresses and chairs are being inspected and replaced if necessary and wards are being fogged when cleaned – a process of flooding rooms with an anti-bacterial fog which kills spores.