Clause 13 - Code of practice relating to health care associated infections
Health Bill
4:00 pm
Andrew Lansley (Shadow Secretary of State for Health, Health; South Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
I apologise, because I might be jogging slightly backwards. The Minister says that amendment No. 109 gives an inappropriate level of detail, but it is a very important detail that is not presently covered by the code. She will know that there has been the most intense debate about the fact that the recommendation of an infection control team following the appropriate risk assessment that a hospital bed or ward should be closed should not be overridden by trust managers for reasons that are extraneous to patient safety. I put it that way because the Government have relied on the idea that, somehow, the risk assessment will not have properly incorporated all the patient safety factors that might arise from an inability to effect admission to the hospital.
Waiting times and waiting time targets should expressly not be regarded as a reason to override such a recommendation except in so far as the requirement to admit individual patients demands that the beds should not be closed. I am putting this as consensually as I can. Under those circumstances, Ministers must accept that such things have happened out there and should not happen in the future. The code should be clear about that.