Anne Main: Action needed to tackle deadly new hospital superbug
27th February 2007
Anne Main expressed concern this week at new official figures which have exposed an alarming spread of a new hospital superbug - Clostridium difficile ('C-diff') in our local health Trusts.
Anne Main expressed concern this week at new official figures which have exposed an alarming spread of a new hospital superbug - Clostridium difficile ('C-diff') in our local health Trusts.
A local breakdown of the deaths from C-diff is not published by the Government, but official figures show that across West Hertfordshire NHS Trust and East and North Hertfordshire, there were infections 472 and 461 reported respectively among those aged 65 and over between January and September 2006.
Conservatives are calling for:
- The Government's top-down, national targets to be replaced with measures of outcomes which capture the whole patient experience. This will allow the NHS to tackle all hospital-acquired infections, rather than focus on one at the expense of another.
- Nurses to have adequate changing and laundry facilities - particularly given the hardiness of C-diff spores and their longevity on clothing.
- The NHS to respond rapidly to cases and outbreaks of C-diff, by screening patients with symptoms routinely and isolating them if necessary.
- Pilots to be undertaken of 'search and destroy' strategies - which have been used successfully in the Netherlands against MRSA - to determine their effectiveness in tackling C-diff.
Anne remarked,
"I am very concerned that hardworking NHS staff are not getting the support they need to deliver a comprehensive strategy against hospital-acquired infections.
"We need to give health care professionals the freedom and support they need to ensure patients receive the best care.""
