Written question asked by Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat) on Friday, 29 November 2002, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 11 December 2002. It was answered by Hazel Blears (Labour) on Wednesday, 11 December 2002 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will estimate the proportion of premature deaths in England in 2001 attributed to nosocomial infections. - Inc fact that there are no centrally held statistics and ref to www.phls.co.uk/publications/cdr/PDFfiles/2002/cdr2502.pdf.

Answer: Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the proportion of premature deaths in England in 2001 attributed to nosocomial infections. [85297] Ms Blears: There are no centrally held statistics on the contribution of nosocomial infections to mortality. The Department has recently published rates of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia for every acute national health service hospital trust in England as the first phase of a mandatory surveillance scheme for health care associated infection. Results for the first year of this scheme (April 2001 to March 2002) were published in the Communicable Disease Report Weekly on 20 June 2002 and are available on the Public Health Laboratory Service website www.phls.co.uk/ publications/cdr/PDFfiles/2002/cdr2502.pdf.

Secondary information