MRSA Action UK asks, "Will the NHS be safest in Labour's hands?"

Monday, 28 September 2009 12:00 AM

MRSA Action UK is heartened to see that preventing infections is a high priority in healthcare, and that it is now widely acknowledged that no-one is immune from the global pandemic of hospital and community acquired infections that can cause so much suffering to those who are unfortunate enough to succumb to disease caused by infections. The heartache of those families who have lost someone they love to avoidable infections, such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile is a legacy that is hard to live with.

Whilst Ministers are at the Labour Party conference pledging a brighter future, we will be at a fundraising event being held by young people who lost their friend aged 17 years old to an MRSA infection that may have been avoided.

We hope that the Labour Party debates on health will focus on patient safety and continued investment in preventing healthcare infections, and that any manifesto pledges will be made possible by investment and not cuts in NHS budgets at the frontline.

The target to reduce MRSA by half the 2004 level was we believe, long overdue and at the time thought to be unachievable by many NHS Trusts. MRSA Action UK has always believed it was achievable and that this could be greatly improved upon. Many NHS Trusts have worked hard, and those with strong leadership and support from Strategic Health Authorities have made the greatest improvements, saving lives by preventing avoidable healthcare infections.

There is still a great deal of work to do if we are to keep healthcare associated infections from running out of control again. The figures reported are only a fraction of the problem, therefore we want to see better reporting, if you don't measure then you can't monitor progress and improve, and that will cost lives and cause unnecessary suffering. To fail to invest in patient safety and avoiding infections would be a false economy, and any cuts in expenditure should not be in staff on the frontline or the numbers of hospital beds, infection prevention and control has to remain a high priority.

We wish the Government to invest and to build on the success and achievements of those NHS Trusts and to continue this focus by pledging to adopt a zero tolerance approach to avoidable healthcare infections. We want to see better reporting of infections so that patients can make informed choices about where they are treated.

There needs to be clarity on what is being done to address NHS Trusts who are not reducing healthcare associated infections as quickly as they should. There also needs to be a tougher line taken on making sure that recording healthcare associated infections on death certificates is being carried out correctly, this should be enforceable by the Care Quality Commission.

Information and communication remains a barrier to reducing infections in hospitals and care homes, with some hospitals not passing information between healthcare providers on patients' infection status and the care that they need. Regulators have a lot to do and the resources will need to be allocated wisely to ensure patient safety and reducing the risk of contracting healthcare associated infections is a high priority. The question is will the NHS be safest in Labour's hands?

To "Healthcare Infections - A Manifesto 2010" visit http://mrsaactionuk.net/Healthcare%20Infections%20A%20Manifesto.pdf

Derek Butler
Chair
MRSA Action UK
http://mrsaactionuk.net
Email: Derek.butler@mrsaactionuk.net
Telephone: 07762 741114

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