Hospitals: Infectious Diseases
(asked on 26th January 2015) - View Source
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.
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.