A COUNCILLOR has condemned a hospital for failing to tell him immediately that his mother had the superbug MRSA.

Sheppey Conservative borough councillor Adrian Crowther said he had to ask hospital staff if his 88-year-old mother Muriel had the bug when she was at Gillingham's Medway Maritime Hospital.

She had undergone an operation on her leg and was given a bed in Milton Ward. A few days later she was transferred to a private room but her son was not told why.

“They just told me she had an infection after the operation. I asked them if she had the MRSA bug, and a nurse just said yes. There was no explanation.

“I wasn’t told how or why she contracted it. I was just told that everyone has it, but it lies dormant in most people. It only attacks if you’re really low or have open wounds.”

MRSA is a family of common bacteria. Infections can cause a broad range of symptoms from redness and swelling to, in some cases, death.

The hospital recently had to close a ward for three weeks after eight patients died following a suspected MRSA outbreak.

After assurances by hospital staff that Mrs Crowther no longer had MRSA, she was moved to Sheppey Community Hospital a week later and went home on Monday.

She has been staying at her son’s home in The Leas, Minster, near Sheerness but Cllr Crowther said he was unsure if he could get the bug.

Medway Maritime Hospital spokesman David Green said: “We take MRSA very seriously and we do everything to ensure patients and families of those affected are advised with care and compassion.

"We are sorry if the high standards of patient care have not been met on this occasion. We provide information leaflets detailing what to do if someone has had MRSA.”