Hospital management in both University College Hospital Galway and Merlin Park knew that patients were at risk of contracting the hospital bug, MRSA, yet failed to contain or manage the spread of the infection.

Minutes of meetings of the Infection Control Committee, which oversees both hospitals, show that management were aware of the extent and seriousness of MRSA for at least a decade and quite possibly as far back as the late ’80s.

The minutes, which have been acquired by the Sentinel, show that the Committee were angry at hospital management for failing to implement a policy adopted to control the spread of the superbug.

MRSA is the antibiotic resistant Methicillin Resistant Staphylococtus Aureus which is prevalent in hospitals where patients, especially those after surgical procedures, are at risk.

The most serious form of the virus is fatal in 50% of all cases — Galway inquests have already returned verdicts of death as a result of contracting MRSA in the case of two Galway patients.