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Health Care-Associated Infections

I prepared two speeches for this afternoon's debate. In one of them, I assumed that there had been a constructive contribution from the Opposition, which meant that we could have a serious debate about a problem that affects not just Britain but all of Europe, and a debate about how other countries are dealing with this serious issue. Sadly, the Opposition decided to play politics with people's lives. It is important to give them a bit of a history lesson on what they did on the issue when they were in power. I worked in the national health service from the early '70s to the early '80s. Those of us of a certain age can remember going into an NHS hospital where there was that smell of cleanliness. When a person who worked in the hospital left the ward and went straight to the pub or social to meet friends, people could tell that they had been in the hospital all day from the clean smell that prevailed. Let me tell hon. Members what happened on my ward. A domestic came on duty at half-past 7 in the morning and went off duty at 2 o'clock. Another domestic came on duty at 4 o'clock and went off duty at 8 o'clock. Those individuals were part of the health care team. They were totally accountable to the ward sister or the charge nurse. In fact, they made a major contribution not just to the cleanliness but to the morale of the ward. For example, when they were going off on Saturday, they would take bookie lines into local bookmakers for patients. They made a significant contribution to patients' well-being and care. Sadly, the Conservatives came to power in 1979. In 1982 they introduced compulsory competitive tendering. [Interruption.] Conservative Members are laughing.