DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
News Release (2007/027) issued by The Government News Network on 25
September 2007
Next steps in the
drive to maintain cleanliness in hospitals and tackle healthcare
associated infections were confirmed today by the Department of Health.
A new hospital regulator with powers to impose fines and close
down entire wards in hospitals that do not meet hygiene
requirements will be introduced and hospitals across England will
undergo an aggressive programme of intensive deep cleaning. This
will result in a more hygienic, brighter, cleaner environment for
hospital users and make it easier to maintain a clean hospital in
the future.
Trusts already undertake deep cleaning programmes on a
ward-by-ward basis but this will be the first time hospitals have
been asked to deep clean their entire site restoring surfaces and
fabrics as close as possible to their original condition.
Alan Johnson said:
"Hospital Acquired Infections are a global problem. We have
made good progress bringing down infection rates, but we have to
adopt new techniques if we are to go further.
"This deep-clean programme will give hospitals a one-off
blitz so walls, patient equipment and ventilation ducts are
disinfected and scrubbed clean, a ward at a time.
"The NHS is heading for a financial surplus this year and it
is a prudent use of some of this money to provide an even better
environment for patients."
Detailing the powers of the new regulator, he continued;
"Hospital infections like MRSA undermine confidence in the
NHS. We will equip the new healthcare regulator with tough
powers, backed by fines, to inspect, investigate and intervene
where hospitals are failing to meet hygiene standards.
The new regulator will have power to impose fines and additional
powers to inspect and issue warnings, as well as halting new
admissions or even cancelling a provider's registration entirely.
Matrons and ward sisters will also be given further powers to
report any concerns they have on hygiene direct to the new
regulator and will receive whistleblower protection.
The new regulator will have a much stronger focus on safety and
quality across all health and adult social care services, in both
the NHS and independent sector. It will replace three existing
bodies (Healthcare Commission, Commission for Social Care
Inspection and the Mental Health Act commission), building on
their existing experience and expertise and simplifying
cross-boundary working. This will also help to reduce
administrative burdens on patients and frontline services.
The announcement comes in the wake of a series of measures to
tackle healthcare associated infections including;
- £50 million extra funding to Strategic Health Authority
Directors of Nursing and doubling the size of improvement teams;
- New guidance on clothing which will mean that hospitals will
adopt a new "bare below the elbows" dress code;
- Matrons and clinical directors will report quarterly directly
to trust boards on infection control and cleanliness;
- New clinical guidance to increase the use of isolation for
those patients who are infected with MRSA or Clostridium difficile;
- The National Patient Safety Agency will extend its successful
cleanyourhands campaign to care settings outside hospitals; and,
- A new legal requirement to be placed on all chief executives to
report all MRSA bacteraemias and C. difficile infections to the
Health Protection Agency, backed by fines for non-compliance -
failure to report will be an offence.
The proposals to create the new regulator will be introduced in
the Health & Social Care Bill in the next Parliamentary
session and Trusts will be expected to begin their deep cleaning
programmes as soon as possible.
However, depending on the size of the hospital, a serious deep
clean can be a lengthy process and we will give trusts flexibility
to properly plan the timing and pace of the deep clean programme
to ensure minimum disruption to patients.
Notes to editors
1. Deep cleaning will often involve the deployment of more
mechanical and specialist equipment, for example: steam cleaners,
floor scrubbers/polishers, carpet and upholstery
shampooing/cleaning equipment. The success of the first programme
of deep cleaning will be fully evaluated before a decision is made
about whether to repeat.
2. The deep cleaning could cost as much as £50m. Strategic Health
Authorities will be expected to manage the funding of this
programme from within their own regional financial plans. Each of
the ten SHAs has the resources to do this in this year.
3. The Prime Minister announced in July this year (in "The
Governance of Britain - The Government's Draft Legislative
Programme") that the Government are preparing to bring
forward a Bill early in the coming Parliamentary session to create
a new integrated regulator for health and adult social care. The
document can be found at http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/reports/governance/index.asp
4. The Government will set the high-level requirements that the
regulatory body will use to assure the safety and quality of care.
The detail of these requirements will be set out in regulations
and subject to a further consultation later in the year.
5. The establishment of the new body will mean that, for the
first time NHS and independent sector healthcare providers will be
subject to the same regulatory framework, giving patients will
have consistent information available to them when making their
choice of service provider.
6. Although the Code of Practice for the prevention and control
of healthcare associated infections requires NHS bodies to report
HCAI surveillance data - responsibility for this was not clearly
specified. The forthcoming legislation will clarify the position,
with the possibility of fines levied on the organisation for non-compliance.
[ENDS]