£350k deep clean funding to go to Kent hospital
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, Kent, is one of the first trusts
to receive Government funding to conduct a “deep clean” of
its hospitals, following a recent Healthcare Commission report looking
into Clostridium difficile outbreaks at the trust (PJ, 20 October, p425).
Health secretary Alan Johnson announced last week that the trust is to
benefit from an additional £350,000 to accelerate its cleaning
plans, as part of a wider range of measures needed to tackle health care-acquired
infections.
The trust is to continue to address other aspects of infection control,
which include a rigid antibiotic policy and measures to ensure that infected
patients are treated in isolation.
Jonathan Cooke, director of pharmacy at University Hospital of South
Manchester NHS Foundation Trust and a member of the Government’s
Advisory Committee on Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated
Infection, commented: “It is important that infection control is
optimised alongside antimicrobial usage. C difficile-associated diarrhoea
is a product of contamination or colonisation with a toxigenic strain
and previous recent use of certain antimicrobials. Reduction in agents
such as second and third generation cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones,
together with optimal use of antimicrobials and reduction in their total
use, has been shown to reduce C difficile-associated disease.”
Professor Cooke added that sub-optimal antimicrobial use is not only
encountered in hospitals, and that careful use of antimicrobials in the
community is also an important issue.
The NHS has received guidance on deep cleaning, which might entail dismantling
beds, hydrogen peroxide fogging and restoration of surfaces. The money
may be spent in any hospital setting, but priority should be given to
areas where an impact on reducing infections or increasing patient and
public confidence can be clearly demonstrated.
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust received £300,000 in January
and £420,000 in September to help tackle the problem of health
care-acquired infections.
HPA figures
Cases of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus
aureus blood poisoning in England fell by 10 per cent over the
last year of surveillance (April 2006 to March 2007), new figures (PDF,
470K) from the Health
Protection Agency show. Cases of C difficile are continuing
to rise, but at a lower rate than was observed between
2004 and 2005.
Murray Devine, head of safety at the Healthcare Commission, said: “Hospitals
must continue to focus on reducing rates of infections through raising board-level
awareness and involvement, good antibiotic and isolation policies, high standards
of cleanliness and staff training, and the Healthcare Commission will continue
to assess hospitals’ progress in this area.” |
MRSA deaths
Most patients who died in NHS hospitals in England following MRSA
infection during 2005–07 were elderly and had significant
co-morbidities, a new report (PDF,
1.21Mb) shows
“
The confidential study
of deaths following meticillin-resistant Staphhylococcus aureus”,
published last week by the Health Protection Agency and the Office
for National Statistics, shows that 80 per cent of patients were
over 70 years old when they died and three-quarters had at least
two co-morbidities in addition to their main diagnosis.
All 16
acute trusts in the sample had antibiotic policies in place but
only 10 stated that compliance with the antibiotic policy was monitored.
Ten trusts stated that compliance with policy is monitored predominantly
by pharmacy staff. The report can be accessed via PJ Online (www.pjonline.com/links/pj). |
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