Ashford And St Peter's Hospitals NHS Trust Improves Infection Control Practices, UK

Main Category: MRSA / Drug Resistance
Also Included In: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 14 Oct 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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The Healthcare Commission yesterday (Monday) announced that Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Trust has made necessary improvements in infection control.

It said the trust is now compliant with the requirements of an improvement notice, issued on 18 June 2008, which required immediate changes to infection control practices.

The Commission made an unannounced visit to Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Trust on 5 and 6 June 2008 and also made subsequent requests for documentation of policies and procedures on infection control.

It found serious breaches of duty 4 of the hygiene code. This covers arrangements for clean and appropriate premises and decontamination of surgical equipment. The trust was also in breach of duty 3, for which trusts should assess the risks of infection and take action to reduce or control them. As a result, the Commission issued an improvement notice.

The hygiene code outlines compulsory duties to prevent and manage healthcare-associated infections such as meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile. All NHS trusts should be compliant with these duties.

The issuing of an improvement notice is a legal power given to the Commission by the Government in October 2006. Notices are issued only when breaches of the hygiene code are serious.

The Commission conducted a follow-up visit to Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Trust on 29 September 2008 to assess the trust's compliance with these duties. Among the improvements made, the Commission found that the trust has:

-- Separated the storage areas for clean and dirty mattresses, with clean mattresses now stored in a separate room.
-- Ensured that responsibilities for decontamination are clearly assigned.
-- Conducted and acted on a risk assessment regarding decontamination.

The Commission has made no further recommendations to the trust following this visit.

Christine Braithwaite, head of the inspection programme, said: "By quickly and carefully acting on our notice, the trust has demonstrated that it is able to place a high importance on infection prevention and control, which is reassuring to the patients and the public.

"The proper decontamination and storing of mattresses and equipment is crucial to safeguarding patients from infection. The trust has improved its facilities for decontamination and has also made important changes to the way in which the responsibility for decontamination is shared and assessed.

"The trust began to make immediate improvements upon our drawing the issues to their attention, and we are very pleased that our inspector was able to confirm these at our September inspection."

The visits to the trust were part of the Commission's biggest ever programme of inspections relating to healthcare-associated infection. From April 2008, every hospital trust will be inspected on infection control.

-- The Government gave the Commission the power to issue improvement notices for serious breaches of the hygiene code when the hygiene code was introduced in October 2006. The code outlines 11 compulsory duties to prevent and manage healthcare-associated infections such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile.

-- A copy of the hygiene code (The Health Act 2006: Code of practice for the prevention and control of healthcare associated infections) is available here.

-- Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Trust was rated as "fair" for quality of services and "weak" for use of resources in the 2006/07 annual health check carried out by the Healthcare Commission.

-- In their most recent declaration for the 2007/08 annual health check, the trust declared compliance against the three standards relating to the hygiene code (C4a, C4c and C21).

-- The Commission issued three improvement notices in its first round of inspections. This was the first improvement notice to be issued in the new round of inspections, which commenced in April 2008.

Information on the Healthcare Commission

The Healthcare Commission is the health watchdog in England. It keeps check on health services to ensure that they are meeting standards in a range of areas. The Commission also promotes improvements in the quality of healthcare and public health in England through independent, authoritative, patient-centred assessments of those who provide services.

Responsibility for inspection and investigation of NHS bodies and the independent sector in Wales rests with Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW). The Healthcare Commission has certain statutory functions in Wales which include producing an annual report on the state of healthcare in England and Wales, national improvement reviews in England and Wales, and working with HIW to ensure that relevant cross-border issues are managed effectively.

The Healthcare Commission does not cover Scotland as it has its own body, NHS Quality Improvement Scotland. The Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) undertakes regular reviews of the quality of services in Northern Ireland.

http://www.healthcarecommission.org.uk