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Health and Social Care Bill

I support these amendments. In a recent Question on this subject, I suggested that we should have statutory reporting because it is necessary. Screening is needed not just for patients but for staff. At a conference in Nottingham on this subject, a paediatrician from St. Thomas’ hospital said that he was absolutely horrified when he realised that he was a carrier of MRSA. Although he worked with vulnerable children, he did know that he was. We now have a new problem in Panton-Valentine leukocydin. It is now in the community and I am sure that it is being misdiagnosed by many doctors who think that it is pneumonia or a white blood cell deficiency such as anaemia. Far more should be done and the numbers should be counted. Having worked on a regional health authority, however, I know very well that people can fiddle the figures. It is a worrying concern. Not long ago, I sat next to a judge at a family dinner who told me that he had to have a knee operation. He said that he was not at all worried about the operation itself but he was worried about contracting an infection such as MRSA. This is what most members of the public feel when they have to go into hospital. I think deep cleaning is a good idea because people are horrified when they go into a dirty hospital. It does not matter whether or not deep cleaning helps deal with the infection, but it is much more helpful for the patients to go into a clean rather than a dirty hospital. One of the big problems is the beds being far too close together and patients being hot-bedded in and out and moved from ward to ward. This happens all the time. I have been dealing with a patient who was moved four times from a London hospital to another hospital and then to another. He eventually ended up in Stoke Mandeville Hospital, where he is now in isolation with a very serious infection—an even more dangerous strain of MRSA that is completely resistant to antibiotics. This is a great worry because these strains are now creeping into Britain. I believe there should be ring-fencing and carrots for those hospitals that are infection-free.