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Top e-government news, updated daily, and regular features from the top people in the public sector.
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| Council makes recommendations to combat HAI |
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Kensington and Chelsea Council has publicly launched a report that looks into the problem of hospital acquired infection and MRSA at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and makes suggestions on how to tackle the problem.
Hospital acquired infections, and particularly MRSA, have been very much in the news over the past 18 months so the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Adult Care, Health and Environmental Health set up a sub-group in April of last year to investigate the matter.
The report details a number of thoughtful suggestions on how the management of hospital acquired infections at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital might be improved.
Cllr Miss Barbara Campbell, said: “Residents need to know that the Council is very concerned about the scale of hospital acquired infections and the MRSA superbug crisis. We hope that this report will help us work with the hospital so that we can identify avoidable factors and learn useful lessons that will reduce the impact of hospital acquired infections in Kensington and Chelsea."
Recommendations that appear in the report include:
• The number of infection control nurses should be increased.
• There should be bigger and bolder signs in the hospital recommending the cleaning of hands.
• Attendance at hand hygiene awareness courses should be compulsory for all staff.
• We welcome the presence of gel by every bedside and hope that its availability is brought to the attention, not only of staff but also of patients and visitors.
• Since symptoms do not manifest themselves in about 50 per cent of cases until after discharge, the Trust should consider introducing some form of post-discharge surveillance.
The Council has also made a number of recommendations to the Department of Health. These include:
• The current practice of using MRSA rates as proxy indicators for all hospital acquired infections is not satisfactory and there is a need to develop a high-quality surveillance system covering the full range of hospital acquired infections that have an impact on patient care.
• It appears that different acute Trusts have measured their baselines in different ways and applied different degrees of stringency to what was captured. The National Surveillance Scheme must be applied consistently across the country and should be mandatory so as to enable more meaningful ‘benchmarking’ between Trusts.
The Chelsea and Westminster Hospital shares our concerns that despite being the cleanest hospital in London, there is always the possibility of further incidents of hospital acquired infections. The committee hopes that its recommendations will be acted upon for the benefit of all hospital users. |
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