Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance is given to hospitals on pre-operative screening for high-risk patients with high prevalence of superbugs, such as Carbapenemase Producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE).

The UK Health Security Agency has advised health and social care providers, including hospitals, on minimising the impact of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE). This includes recommendations for pre-operative screening and information regarding surgical prophylaxis options for high-risk patients. Patients should be considered for screening on admission if they are likely to stay in hospital overnight and if in the last 12 months, they have been previously identified as CPE positive; been an inpatient in any hospital, in the United Kingdom or abroad; had multiple hospital treatments; had known epidemiological link to a known carrier of CPE; and they are being admitted into augmented care or high-risk units.