Clause 17
Health and Social Care Bill
9:00 am
Sandra Gidley (Shadow Minister, Health; Romsey, Liberal Democrat)
I understand the motivation behind these well-intentioned amendments. I want to query a few points on amendment No. 18 because it attempts to detail what should go into the Bill. I have some concerns about the list, not because of what is in it but because of what is not. I do not believe that the list is comprehensive. For example, new paragraph (c) refers to the frequency and extent of cleaning in health care premises, but there is no mention of personal hygiene standards or the responsibility of the individual health care workers or even the antibiotic policy which, if we are talking about C. difficile, is just as important, if not more so, as cleanliness. At the moment, I feel that if those aspects are in the Bill, undue emphasis could be placed on the procedures and processes outlined in new paragraph (c), and we might not be able to tackle the overall picture. With the emerging nature of resistant infections, situations may arise which require a change in practice. We need to retain some flexibility so that we can face existing and future challenges.