Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking with NHS England to tackle the threat of Carbapenemase Producing Enterobacteriaceae/Carbapenemase Producing Organism.

The United Kingdom’s five-year national action plan for Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), published 24 January 2019, includes a strengthened focus on infection prevention and control, renewing our commitment to halve levels of healthcare associated Gram-negative blood stream infections by 2023-24. The plan also sets a world-first target to reduce the actual numbers of resistant infections, with the aim to reduce them by 10% by 2025.

We will achieve our ambitions by adopting a systematic approach to preventing infections, enhancing surveillance and adding Carbapenem resistant Gram-negative infections to the list of notifiable diseases. There will also be enhanced roles for Directors of Infection Prevention and Control, a review of workforce needs and targeted interventions around hand hygiene.

The NHS Long Term Plan makes the commitment to implement the human health aspects of the UK AMR national action plan. The Department is establishing a UK AMR national action plan delivery board which will drive and oversee delivery of this work.