DoH announces funding for cleaner hospitals

The Department of Health (DoH) has announced the awarding of 50 million pounds of additional funding to fight against healthcare associated infections – including C.difficile and MRSA.

Each Strategic Health Authority director of nursing will receive five million pounds to aid their work with primary care trusts to guarantee the implementation of reforms to aid in the fight against such infections.

Furthermore, existing improvement teams set up to deal with this problem will be doubled in size to ensure that hospitals not currently on track to meet next year’s MRSA targets will have access to staff to aid in the reduction of infection.

Alan Johnson, health secretary, said: “NHS staff have worked hard to slow the increase in C.difficile reports from 17 per cent to eight per cent, whilst reducing MRSA bloodstream infections in the three months to December last year by 20 per cent, compared with 2003-04.”

He added that while progress had been made, further effort must be undertaken to enhance patient safety and the quality of care in the health service.

Last month, the Healthcare Commission announced the launch of the largest-ever programme relating to healthcare-associated infections with the surprise inspections of 120 NHS trusts over the coming year.