Patients 'already provided with infection rate information', UK

Main Category: MRSA / Drug Resistance
Article Date: 11 Oct 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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A plan by the Tories to allow patients to have access to MRSA rates is already in operation, according to an official.

The chief economist for the King's Fund dismissed a pledge by the Conservative Party to allow patients access to information about hospitals infection rates within the first week of taking office.

Dr John Appleby told BBC Radio Four's World at One: "The Department of Health has already been publishing details of infection rates, specifically MRSA the superbug, since April 2001.

"The latest press release on MRSA figures, which are published by NHS trusts in England, was published this July and any member of the public can access details of MRSA rates and how they are changing over time, from the Department of Health's website."

However, the shadow education secretary Tim Collins told the same programme that, at present, the infection rates are published only by trust.

"Many trusts, certainly the trust in my constituency, covers three separate hospitals over a very wide geographical area," he explained. "Publishing results by trust is not the same as publishing results by individual hospital. Chances are that information is held somewhere in Whitehall. We're saying we want to make it available to the public."

The Conservatives also plan to introduce a scheme within their first month in office which will give patients the right to choose the hospital they go to, but Dr Appleby pointed out that the Department of Health and the NHS is already offering choice for patients.

"By December 2005, any patient who goes to their GP who requires consultation at an outpatients department, will be offered a choice for five hospitals, including a private hospital where possible," he pointed out.

http://www.hda-online.org.uk

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