§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many wards have been shut down to prevent the spread of healthcare-acquired infections in each of the last three years. [111044]
§ Ms BlearsThere are no centrally held statistics on the number of ward closures in hospital trusts due to healthcare associated infections.
However, the Department of Health does collect data on methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (MRSA) for every acute National Health Service hospital trust in England, as part of a mandatory surveillance scheme for healthcare associated infection. Results for the first year of this scheme, from April 2001 to March 2002, were published in the Communicable Disease Report Weekly or 20 June 2002 and are available on the Public Health Laboratory Service website at www.phls.co.uk/publications/cdr/PDFfiles/2002/cdr2502.pdf.