Topical question asked in the House of Commons, by Stephen O'Brien (Conservative). It was answered on Tuesday, 22 July 2008 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Topical Questions

Question: It is the last day of term and time for some end-of-term reports. First, on the serious subject of superbugs, given that there were 4,500 cases of MRSA in 2007-08—nearly 600 more than the level needed for the Government to meet their target of halving MRSA rates by last March—and that clostridium difficile has increased by 6 per cent. compared with the previous quarter, despite the statistics read out by his colleague a moment ago, does the Secretary of State accept that the deep clean programme was a flawed gimmick from a Prime Minister desperate for a headline? Will he now heed the advice of The Lancet that the Government should stop pandering to populism about hospital cleanliness and listen to the evidence about washing hands, screening and bed occupancy rates?

Answer: It is just as well that I am not presenting an end-of-term report on the Opposition Front Bench—[Hon. Members: ““ Go on.””] I resist the temptation. The hon. Gentleman may be a better concert pianist than he is a Front-Bench spokesman. I do not understand the attitude of Conservative Members towards the current figures: a 33 per cent. reduction in MRSA and a 32 per cent. reduction in C. difficile. He talks about C. difficile rising against the previous quarter, not the previous year. That is always the case, because the figure includes the winter period when more older people—these are post-65 statistics—go into hospital. I would have thought that he would celebrate the latest statistics and that he would know by now that no one on the Labour Benches or anyone in the health service has stopped saying, ““Wash your hands, responsibly prescribe antibiotics and ensure that you isolate with cohort nursing anybody who has shown symptoms of MRSA.”” On screening, we announced that we will pre-screen everyone in elective surgery and everyone in emergency surgery over this comprehensive spending review period. The Conservatives should be congratulating us on a real success story.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 479 c655
Session: 2007-08
Oral question type: Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Commons chamber
Subjects: Hospitals Disease control Hygiene Infectious diseases MRSA Screening Cleaning services Clostridium
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Topical question on www.publications.parliament.uk