Press Room October 08

Hospital cleanliness is patients’ first priority

Hospital cleanliness and low infection rates are the most important factors for patients choosing an elective care provider, new government statistics show.
Provisional results from the March 2008 national patient choice survey show gradual increases in the number of patients aware of the choice policy and those being offered choice. Full figures at nds.coi.gov.uk

Health Service Journal
June 12, 2008

NHS trusts fail to meet hygiene standards

More than a quarter of health trusts in England are failing to meet basic hygiene standards, official figures show today. Patients groups and politicians have called the results shocking. The Healthcare Commission reports that no improvement has been made on a year ago. In total, 103 out of 391 trusts admitted they did not achieve the minimum requirements, brought in by the Government to help combat the hospital superbugs, MRSA and Clostridium difficile. Patients groups and politicians said that it was ”shocking” that one in four still did not meet the standards, despite ministers’ pledges to tackle cleanliness.

Telegraph.co.uk
June 16, 2008

Glue is the clue

Irish researchers have found that the sticky glue secreted by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus could be used to make an effective vaccine against the multiple-resistance MRSA.

Biotech Scandinavia,
September 10, 2008

Understaffing, overwork fuel superbugs

Programs to control deadly superbugs in Australian hospitals are failing because wards are too overcrowded and understaffed, experts say.

A review study has blamed conditions in hospitals for the consistently high rates of infections with antibioticresistant bugs such as MRSA, or methicillinresistant staphylococcus aureus. Australian researchers say in the British journal, The Lancet, that pressures on the health system to churn patients through more quickly, at greater volumes and with fewer staff to manage them, was feeding the spread of the germs.

Healthcare News Review
June 26, 2008 (No link to website)

Overview

WHO has undertaken a number of global and regional initiatives to address surgical safety. The World Alliance for Patient Safety initiated work on the Challenge in January 2007. The focus of the Challenge is the WHO Safe Surgery Checklist. The checklist identifies three phases of an operation, each corresponding to a specific period in the normal flow of work: Before the induction of anaesthesia (“sign in”), before the incision of the skin (“time out”) and before the patient leaves the operating room (“sign out”). In each phase, a checklist coordinator must confirm that the surgery team has completed the listed tasks before it proceeds with the operation.

World Alliance for Patient Safety
2008

NHS ’chaos’ over surgical tools

Operating theatres are being thrown into chaos and operations cancelled because of broken, missing or dirty surgical instruments, surgeons say. The Royal College of Surgeons of England said it had contacted 250 doctors with most reporting problems. The college said the problems have become worse since cleaning started to be handed over to private firms. But the government said it was working with trusts and private providers toresolve any issues.

A process of upgrading decontamination services was set up by the NHS eight years ago after an audit showed the need to modernise. The Department of Health in England has provided funding to encourage hospitals to enter into deals with commercial sterilisation services.

BBC News
April 24, 2008

Halland, a Swedish region, among the best in prevention

The risk of infection in conjunction with a stay in a hospital in Halland is considerably lower than at the majority of other places in the country. Seven years ago an intensive programme commenced at the County Hospital to reduce hospital-linked infections. The programme involved determining the actual number of infections and since then they have been reduced by 40 per cent. In cost terms this is equivalent to a saving of SEK 5.5 million due to reduced periods of admission. At the same time there has been an intensive hand disinfectant campaign. A further way of improving safety has been to issue staff with clothing with short sleeves.

Hallands Nyheter
July 14, 2008

New drug in fight against MRSA

A British pharmaceutical firm has developed a drug to fight Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Infections caused by ’superbugs’, staphylococci resistant to antibiotics, are an enormous problem for the health service in most Western countries. A solution could now be within reach. UK newspaper The Independent reports that the British pharmaceutical company Destiny Pharma claims to have a new product that not only kills the bacteria but also prevents the staphylococci from developing resistance to the product.

Dagens medicin, Sweden
May 19, 2008