Opposition Day — [1st allotted day] — Health Care-Associated Infections — 21 Nov 2007 at 18:49

I beg to move,

That this House supports NHS staff in their efforts to minimise healthcare associated infections; notes with distress the failings disclosed in the report by the Healthcare Commission into the outbreaks of clostridium difficile at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust; deplores the failure by the Department of Health to secure new leadership at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust at an earlier stage; regrets the repeated failure of the Government to ensure compliance with proven methods of containing infections, including screening prior to admission, adequate isolation facilities and optimum bed occupancy rates; and calls on the Government to support NHS bodies in implementing zero tolerance strategies for healthcare-associated infections.

I beg to move, To leave out from "House" to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof:

"recognises that healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs) are a worldwide problem; acknowledges that the recent Comprehensive Spending Review settlement for the NHS includes £270 million to tackle HCAI; welcomes the initiatives the NHS is taking to manage infection control, including a new "bare below the elbows" dress code, new clinical guidance to increase the use of isolation for infected patients published in September, every hospital to undertake a deep clean as part of a wider drive for a culture of cleanliness, matrons and clinical directors to report directly to trust boards on infection control and cleanliness, annual infection control inspections of all acute trusts using teams of specialist inspectors, and MRSA screening for all elective admissions next year; further welcomes the introduction of legislation for a new health and adult social care regulator with tough powers to inspect, investigate and intervene in hospitals that do not meet rigorous standards for cleanliness and a new legal requirement on chief executives to report all MRSA bacteraemias and clostridium difficile infections to the Health Protection Agency; believes that centrally determined targets for tackling HCAIs are the most effective way of ensuring infection levels are reduced in every hospital; notes that as a consequence MRSA bloodstream infection numbers are falling; and welcomes the Better Care for All PSA Delivery Agreement, which sets two new targets for the period 2010-11 to keep MRSA bloodstream infections below half the numbers of 2003-04, and to deliver a 30 per cent. reduction in clostridium difficile infections from the numbers in 2007-08."

Question put accordingly, That the original words stand part of the Question:-

The House divided: Ayes 200, Noes 301.

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