Health Care Associated Infections

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 10:20 am on 12 February 2009.

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Photo of Richard Simpson Richard Simpson Labour 10:20, 12 February 2009

I accept that entirely, but the cabinet secretary's press release called it a reduction. I just urge caution.

Do I have one minute left, cabinet secretary—I mean Presiding Officer—to conclude? [Laughter.] Sorry, all the promotions of the past week are getting to me.

I will finish by making a couple of serious points. First, we have an alphabet soup of organisations and systems. Their functions might be clear to the organisations themselves, but I can say as a doctor that it has taken me many days of work and many meetings with the individual organisations even to begin to comprehend their function and role. How can the public have clarity? We have HPS and HFS—health facilities Scotland—as well as NHS QIS, the care commission, health and safety at work, statistical process control, the SPORS reporting system, hand hygiene surveillance and even Audit Scotland. The system is too complex, so it needs to be simplified and focused. That is why we have recommended a single leader to help us achieve that focus. The Cairns Smith report that was published this week states:

"Restructuring ... has produced a much clearer and simpler structure, with clear lines of responsibility and accountability."

We need that nationally.

Presiding Officer, I realise that I should probably close now. This has been a good debate; members have drawn together a lot of serious issues and given some very good examples of their personal experiences and those of their constituents. Unless we draw together all the issues—hand washing, the environment, antibiotic policy, testing of toxins and death certification—and ensure that guidance is clear and standardised, we will not secure the public confidence that we all seek. I hope that the 15-point plan that we have produced will be seen as building on and complementing the 57 points that the HAI task force suggested. I hope that we will achieve that.

Let me make one last point. The public must be seen as our partners in this. Public involvement is taking place at a number of levels. In NHS Forth Valley, we now have members of the public on the team walking the wards—