Nigel Mills – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Mills on 2016-05-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the relationship between hand hygiene compliance levels across the NHS and rates of E.coli bacteraemia in 2015.

Ben Gummer

Tackling healthcare associated infections is complex and requires a strong patient safety system that integrates cleanliness, infection prevention and control and antibiotic use. Hand hygiene is an important component and we continuously review and enhance national measures, systems and guidance. For example hand hygiene references in The Health and Social Care Act 2008 Code of Practice for prevention and control of infections and related guidance, were strengthened when it was revised in 2015. It will also form part of forthcoming guidance on reducing Gram negative infections such as E. coli.

Auditing of hand hygiene is a local responsibility and information on hand hygiene compliance is not collected centrally. Therefore, no national assessment has been made of the potential links between hand hygiene compliance levels and the above infections.