Golden staph rates fall in Aust hospitals

Potentially deadly golden staph infections are becoming less common in Australian public hospitals, new figures show.

Cases of staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia, a bloodstream infection associated with hospital care, decreased 21 per cent between 2010/11 and 2014/15 - from 1876 to 1490 cases.

The majority of cases were treatable with commonly used antibiotics while 22 per cent were antibiotics resistant, according to figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on Friday.

The number of cases that were antibiotic resistant also declined between 2010/11 and 2014/15, from 505 to 331.

The report says hand hygiene compliance in public hospitals - the biggest priority for reducing healthcare-associated infections - has increased from 64.1 per cent to 82.3 per cent between 2009 and 2015.