Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to incentivise NHS trusts to reduce levels of healthcare-associated infections.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The NHS Standard Contract is a key enabler for commissioners to secure improvements in the quality of services for patients and to hold providers of National Health Service funded care to account.
Each provider is required to have a healthcare associated infections reduction plan for each contract year (and to comply with its obligations under that plan) that must reflect local and national priorities relating to healthcare associated infections, including antimicrobial resistance. Under the NHS Standard Contract, commissioners may impose financial sanctions where providers fail to achieve healthcare associated infections reduction targets. These are set out at:
http://www.england.nhs.uk/nhs-standard-contract/
These robust measures have played their part in reducing annual Meticillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections by 59% and Clostridium difficile infections by 45% since May 2010.
Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an estimate of the (a) average and (b) total cost to the NHS of healthcare-associated infections.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The most recent reliable estimate of the cost of healthcare associated infections is derived from the Plowman Report, which estimated the cost to be £1 billion per year.
Although there is no systematic analysis of average costs of all healthcare associated infections, the average cost of Meticillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia is estimated to be £7,000 per case and Clostridium difficile infection is estimated to be £10,000 per case.
Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with (a) NICE and (b) the Care Quality Commission about healthcare-associated infections in the last 12 months; and what steps he is taking as a result of those discussions.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The Department’s work on healthcare associated infections (HCAIs) with these organisations over the last year has been led by officials and progress on how we are supporting the health service in driving down infections is summarised below.
Relevant work being undertaken by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) or recently completed is shown in the table below.
NICE GUIDANCE
SUBJECT | TIMELINE |
NICE guidelines: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – changing risk-related behaviours. | Expected March 2016 |
Healthcare associated infections: prevention and management | Expected February 2016 |
Sepsis – NICE clinical guideline in development with final guidance. Quality standard will follow approx. 6-12 months after completion of the clinical guideline. | Expected 2016 |
NICE guidelines on Effective Antimicrobial Stewardship. | Expected May 2015 |
Antibiotics for neonatal infections – Quality Standard 75. | Published December 2014 |
Hepatitis B – NICE quality standards Quality Standard 65. | Published July 2014 |
Non-antibiotic clinical management of infectious diseases – included in the library of public health Quality Standards. | Published April 2014 |
Infection prevention and control – Quality Standard 61. | Published April 2014 |
The Department has put in place new requirements for registration with the Care Quality Commission which require providers to assess the risk of, and prevent, detect and control the spread of healthcare associated infections. These new fundamental standards come into force in April.
Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will review the adequacy of his Department's current guidance to NHS trusts on how to monitor hand hygiene levels.
Answered by Dan Poulter
Auditing of hand hygiene compliance is a local responsibility, and the Department does not collect this information centrally.
The Health and Social Care Act 2008 Code of Practice on the prevention and control of infections and related guidance sets 10 compliance criteria to manage healthcare associated infections. This includes one covering infection prevention and control which refers to hand hygiene and recommends that providers undertake hand hygiene audits.
The hand hygiene provisions appear to be operating satisfactorily and it is therefore not proposed that provisions relating to guidance on hand hygiene are changed as part of the revisions to the Code of Practice, which is currently out for consultation.