§ Brian CotterTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what action his Department is taking to combat the spread of MRSA within nursing and residential homes. [147605]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonWe consider that implementation of our recent report, "Winning Ways— Working together to reduce Healthcare Associated Infection in England1", will reduce infections in both 326W hospital and community settings. This report will raise standards by reinforcing the need to follow existing good practice2.
1 Available at www.doh.gov.uk/cmo/hai/winningways/pdf.2 The Public Health Medicine Environmental Group Guidelines on the Control of Infection in Residential and Nursing homes 1996—National Institute for Clinical Excellence. Infection control: prevention of health care associated infection in primary and community care 2003.
§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the additional cost to the NHS of hospital acquired infections in each of the last six years; and what methodology he used to calculate that figure. [144148]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonPrecise data are not available. A commonly used estimate1 is that hospital acquired infection may cost the national health service £1 billion a year.
1R. Plowman, N. Graves, M. Griffin, J.A. Roberts, A.V. Swan, B. Cookson, L. Taylor. The socio-economic burden of hospital acquired infection. Public Health Laboratory Service 1999