HC Deb 14 February 2000 vol 344 cc379-80W
Dr. Cable

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to instruct NHS trusts to notify the Public Health Laboratory of cases of MRSA. [106755]

Yvette Cooper

The Report on Resistance to Antibiotics by the Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology drew attention, among other things, to proposals that National Health Service laboratories should be asked to report causative organisms such as MRSA to the Public Health Laboratory Service. In response, the Government accepted the need to increase the effectiveness of laboratory reporting. This could include the reporting of organisms such as MRSA. An overall Communicable Disease Strategy is now being developed by a working group chaired by the Chief Medical Officer.