Hand Hygiene: NHS
Debate between Douglas Chapman and Ben Gummer(8 years, 10 months ago)
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Ben Gummer
I take the hon. Lady’s point, and I agree that we have to re-educate the public that we have not won the battle and that we have to re-engage. I will take her comments to the chief medical officer and talk to her about what more we can do to re-engage the public in the debate on hospital-acquired infections.
Douglas Chapman
My hon. Friend the Member for Central Ayrshire (Dr Whitford) has outlined some of the initiatives taken by the Scottish Government and the NHS in Scotland. Despite those measures, hospital-acquired infections in Scotland still cost the NHS £183 million a year. If we managed to reduce those infections by 20%, that would give us a saving of £36 million. A 40% reduction would give us £73 million. Does the Minister agree that there is a huge financial incentive to reducing the infection figures as much as we can, especially in these times of public spending restraint?
Ben Gummer
The finances follow the far bigger win, which is the benefit to patients and the saving of lives.
One further thing that I will attack quickly is compliance monitoring. It is a very interesting area, and I would encourage local trusts to look at it in detail. The CQC has it as one of its main targets and, in the new inspection round, which will come very soon, it will want to look at the area as a central part of its monitoring.