MRSA Action UK: Cuts in resources on preventing infections may put patients at risk from MRSA and C.Diff

Monday, 23 November 2009 12:00 AM

MRSA Action UK learned last week that the Government and the Department of Health are to abrogate their responsibility in fighting healthcare infections by slackening central support and cutting resources on infection prevention and control. This present Government has made much over the recent past on how it has initiated legislation that has helped the staff in our NHS to reduce healthcare infections to the level we have today.

Whilst the legislation and targets have helped to focus the minds of NHS staff to reduce MRSA and Clostridium difficile, there is no disputing that before these targets were implemented healthcare infections were out of control in our hospitals. The third National Audit Office report on Tackling Healthcare Associated Infections considered by the Public Accounts Committee this month showed we are still having limited impact on the majority of infections that go unreported in the Government's figures. This is despite recommendations being made to ensure there is appropriate feedback of surveillance to clinicians and senior management in the first National Audit Office report of February 2000.

In 1997, when this Government were elected, there were some 2,400 MRSA bacteraemias in England and Wales. Within 7 years this figure had risen to 7,700 and only when the former Health Secretary John Reid announced the drive to reduce MRSA by 50% did this focus the minds of those in our hospitals. Today 12 years after this Government were elected; MRSA bacteraemias are still higher than they were in 1997.

In 1996 there were just 12 cases of Clostridium difficile, 10 years on there were a staggering 60,000 cases and rising. It is shameful to think that this was allowed to get as bad as it did with so many people suffering, dying and in some cases being left damaged by lasting effects, and in extreme cases with no bowel. Many families have told us that when their loved ones had been infected with Clostridium difficile it left them with no dignity. We know that action on healthcare infections should have been taken years ago, and now we fear that if central support is reduced then we will continue to witness more unnecessary suffering.

The Department of Health are cutting central support to Hospital Trusts, and Improvement Teams will end their work with Acute Trusts at the end of the financial year, and yet every region still has a worrying problem with Clostridium difficile. We are informed that the Government and the Department of Health are also no longer supplying the National Patient Safety Agency materials for encouraging hand washing to Trusts; they will have to come up with their own way of reminding everyone of the importance of hand hygiene in fighting infections.

The first role of any elected Government is to protect the people it represents. This also means that it has a duty to protect those patients that use our NHS from those infections we know are avoidable. As a Charity we would like to remind those Ministers of what they have pledged in the past regarding the fight to reduce infections. They have stated that we must take a zero tolerance to any avoidable infections. The Minister with responsibility for leading on quality and reducing healthcare infections, the Rt Hon Ann Keen has publicly stated that, "After achieving the target to halve MRSA bloodstream infections across England, I am delighted that the NHS has continued to raise its game by reducing infections even further. Our strategy for tackling infection includes extra investment, tighter regulation and tough actions. But we will not stop there - one avoidable infection is one too many and we must go further".

The Government's actions of cutting support from Improvement Teams, cutting the National Patient Safety Agency materials for encouraging hand washing, and delaying the promised Patient and Public Information Campaign paints a different picture to that stated by our Ministers. This sends out a message of a Government that is intent on cutting spending on the NHS at the expense of public and patient safety.

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

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