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.
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.