§ Mrs. GormanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many district control of infection officers have been employed in the National Health Service for the most recent year for which figures are available;
(2) what has been the cost to the National Health Service of employing district infection control officers for 1989;
(3) when the role of district control of infection officers was established within the National Health Service; and on what authority.
§ Mr. MellorWe announced last July that we accepted the principle of a greater commitment to the public health advanced by the Chief Medical Officer's report on "Public Health in England" and that we would be taking a number of steps to carry forward its recommendations. These include issuing in December 1988 a circular to health authorities based on the report's conclusions about their responsibilities to improve the health of the population, including the prevention, surveillance and control of communicable disease. Health authorities have been asked to report by 31 December 1989 on the action that they have taken to implement the circular and to move towards management arrangements which assign executive responsibility for surveillance, prevention and control of communicable disease and infection, in their districts to a named medical practitioner of consultant status.
These consultants will be known as consultants in communicable disease control and will exercise comparable functions to those recommended for district control of infection officers whose appointment was recommended in "Public Health in England".
Further guidance was issued to health authorities in February 1988 on the role of consultants in communicable disease control and in June on procedures for their appointment.
It will not be possible to provide detailed figures on the number of such consultants appointed until health authority reports are received at the end of the year. The redeployment of consultant manpower resulting from their appointment is not expected to increase costs to the National Health Service.
§ Mrs. GormanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people acquired infection, other than through food poisoning, in National Health Service hospitals during 1988; how many died as result of those infections; and if he will make a statement.
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§ Mr. FreemanThe latest available data held centrally is for 1985, when the estimated number of cases of post-operative infection was 15,540. The number of deaths with underlying cause of post operative infection in 1988 was 15.
§ Mrs. GormanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list any independent organisations, other than the National Health Service, charged with monitoring and reporting infectious disease levels within the National Health Service; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MellorThe organisation charged with monitoring infectious disease levels throughout England and Wales is the Communicable Disease Surveillance centre of the Public Health Laboratory service which is part of the National Health Service. The centre produces a weekly communicable disease report and an annual report on infectious disease levels. The annual report is produced jointly with the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys.
Also within the National Health Service, registered medical practitioners are statutorily required to notify cases of certain infectious disease to local authority proper officers who are required statutorily to pass data on to other bodies including district health authorities and the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. Serious outbreaks of disease and individual cases of particular diseases must also be reported to the chief medical officer.