Written question asked by Andrew Mackinlay (Labour) on Monday, 12 July 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 7 September 2004. It was answered by Melanie Johnson (Labour) on Tuesday, 7 September 2004 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the results were of the national surveillance by 40 hospitals in respect of MRSA announced by the Minister on 19th March 1997; and if he will make a statement.

Answer: Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the results were of the national surveillance by 40 hospitals in respect of MRSA announced by the Minister on 19 March 1997; and if he will make a statement. [184414] Miss Melanie Johnson: The results were used to develop the nosocomial infection national surveillance service, which was a voluntary and confidential reporting system. This surveillance system aimed to help hospitals benchmark their own performance and investigate their own infection rates. It had two module hospital acquired blood stream infections, which has been replaced by the mandatory surveillance system, and surgical site infections. Orthopaedic surgical site infection (SSI) surveillance is now part of the mandatory system and the rest of SSI module was developed into the surgical site infections surveillance system.

Secondary information