Sharing knowledge, improving care

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has recently launched new plans to reduce infections in the NHS. He announced the Government’s strategy to halve the number of gramnegative bloodstream infections by 2020. E. coli infections – which represent 65% of gram-negative infections – killed more than 5,500 NHS patients last year and are set to cost the NHS £2.3 billion by 2018. There is also large variation in hospital infection rates, with the worst performers having more than five times the number of cases than the best performing hospitals

Infection rates can be cut with better hygiene and improved patient care in hospitals, surgeries and care homes, such as ensuring staff, patients and visitors regularly wash their hands. People using insertion devices such as catheters, which are often used following surgery, can develop infections like E. coli if they are not inserted properly, left in too long or if patients are not properly hydrated and going to the toilet regularly. These new plans build on the progress made in infection control since 2010 – the number of MRSA cases has been reduced by 57% and C. difficile by 45%. 

Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said, “The NHS can rightly be proud that in the last six years we have reduced the number of MRSA cases by 57% and C. difficile by 45%. These aren’t abstract numbers – they show that we have prevented the needless suffering – sometimes fatal suffering – of over 60,000 people in that period. Because every avoidable infection also has a financial cost, we know that progress has also saved the NHS over half a billion pounds.”