HC Deb 17 July 2003 vol 409 c634W
Laura Moffatt

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the classes of clinical device which are most closely linked with bacteraemia. [126002]

Miss Melanie Johnson

Voluntary surveillance data1 show that almost two-thirds of bacteraemias of known origin were associated with an intravascular device or device-related infections, such as a catheter associated urinary tract infection.

Central intravenous catheters were the commonest associated source of hospital acquired bacteraemia.

1 Public Health Laboratory Service. Nosocomial Infection National Surveillance Service. Surveillance of hospital acquired bacteraemia in English hospitals. 1997–2002.

Laura Moffatt

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the cost to the NHS of catheter associated urinary tract infection in each of the last three years. [126005]

Miss Melanie Johnson

Data on the cost to the national health service of catheter associated urinary tract infections are not collected centrally.

However, a research study1 carried out in one hospital in the 1990s estimated that the cost of a hospital acquired urinary tract infection was, on average, equivalent to an additional £1,327 per patient during the stay in hospital.

1 R. 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.