Health: Hospital-acquired Infection

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Sheldon

Tuesday 7th June 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sheldon]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many hospital patients acquired an infection following their admission during 2010.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Earl Howe)]

My Lords, information on all healthcare-associated infections is not collected centrally. The best available information is from the mandatory surveillance system, managed by the Health Protection Agency. During 2010, 1,630 MRSA bloodstream infections and 23,208 Clostridium difficile infections were reported in England. Of these, an estimated 818 and 11,547 cases respectively were acquired after admission to an acute National Health Service trust. Data on other infections subject to mandatory surveillance are not yet available for this period.

[Lord Sheldon]

My Lords, according to the British Medical Journal, about 7 per cent of patients in hospital in Europe develop healthcare-associated infections. In the past there was a shortage of beds in hospitals, but what is the position now? Is there still a shortage of beds, and how many hospital patients acquired an infection in 2010?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, we expect all provider trusts to have sufficient isolation units for those patients in whom an infection is identified. I am not quite sure whether this is what lay behind the noble Lord’s question, but there is no evidence to support a link between higher bed occupancy rates and higher rates of healthcare-associated infections. The number of beds occupied in a trust, in other words, should not have a bearing on the infection rate in that hospital.