Department of Health and Social Care written question – answered at on 10 March 2020.
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the study in the British Medical Journal by Julian Guest Modelling the annual NHS costs and outcomes attributable to healthcare-associated infections in England, published on 22 January, what action, if any, they propose to take in response to the estimated 834,000 health-associated infections that occurred in a healthcare setting in 2016–17.
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the study in the British Medical Journal by Julian Guest Modelling the annual NHS costs and outcomes attributable to healthcare-associated infections in England, published on 22 January, what action, if any, they propose to take in response to the estimated 28,500 patients that died from a health-associated infection in a healthcare setting in 2016–17.
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the study in the British Medical Journal by Julian Guest Modelling the annual NHS costs and outcomes attributable to healthcare-associated infections in England, published on 22 January, what action, if any, they propose to take in response to the estimated 7.1 million bed days in NHS hospitals in England that were occupied by patients with a health-associated infection in 2016–17.
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the study in the British Medical Journal by Julian Guest Modelling the annual NHS costs and outcomes attributable to healthcare-associated infections in England, published on 22 January, what action, if any, they propose to take in response to the estimated 79,700 days of absenteeism that occurred amongst frontline healthcare professionals working in NHS hospitals in England as a result of health-associated infections in 2016–17.
A survey undertaken in 2016/17 by the European Centre for Disease Control to detect the number of healthcare associated infections (HCAIs), estimated the number in England to be much lower than those in this report at approximately 206,000. Public Health England is developing robust methodologies that will enable greater certainty in estimates of the numbers and costs of HCAIs.
While there have been year-on-year reductions in MRSA and C. difficile; E. coli, MSSA, Klebsiella and Pseudomonas infections have increased. From April 2020, the NHS will introduce an annual national reduction target for these bloodstream infections.
NHS England and NHS Improvement take a systematic approach to the prevention of infections with a sustained focus at national level. Action on HCAIs forms part of wide- ranging commitments made in the NHS Long Term Plan for preventing ill health among the National Health Service workforce.
The United Kingdom’s national action plan on antimicrobial resistance has a strong focus on infection prevention and control and includes the commitment to support research that will help target front line interventions.
Yes1 person thinks so
No2 people think not
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