Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with NHS England and NHS Improvement on replacing the NHS safety thermometer.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS England and NHS Improvement have no plans to replace the National Health Service safety thermometer. The data generated from the thermometer has been shown to be not fit for current purposes and is available from other existing sources.
NHS England and NHS Improvement discussed discontinuing the NHS safety thermometer with the Department during 2018/19 and 2019/20, due to emerging evidence that the data collected was incomplete and not being used as intended to support safety improvement. The specific decision to stop data collection in March 2020, in part to support the COVID-19 response by freeing up nursing time, was discussed with Departmental officials during March 2020.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding the Government is allocating from the public purse to develop new sepsis diagnostics to determine whether a patient with sepsis has a bacterial or viral infection.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Developing new diagnostics that enable early detection of bacterial or viral infections and drive optimal antimicrobial usage is a priority for this Government. Since 2014, the Government has invested over £360 million in antimicrobial resistance research and development, including funding to support the development of diagnostics for infection.
Investments in early-stage funding for diagnostic research include the £10 million Longitude Prize for a diagnostic tool that can rule out antibiotic use or help identify an effective antibiotic to treat a patient. The National Institute for Health Research Medtech and In Vitro Diagnostic Co-operatives support the development of medical technology and the uptake of commercially supplied in vitro diagnostic devices, including for infection-related tests. The £14.25 million award is for five years until 2022.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the rise of carbapenem-resistant bacteria in secondary care.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) are carbapenem-resistant infections with the ability to transfer resistance to different bacterial species. Public Health England conducts monitoring and surveillance of these infections and publishes toolkits to support acute and non-acute organisations to prevent and control the spread of CPE.
The Government recognises that identifying where carbapenemase-producing Gram-negative infections occur, and acting to prevent them, is essential to maintain the effectiveness of our most important antibiotics. Work is underway to add these infections to the list of notifiable diseases as part of our national action plan for antimicrobial resistance.
NHS England and NHS Improvement continues to work to reduce the burden of all healthcare-associated infections and is tasked with delivering the Government’s ambition to halve all healthcare associated Gram-negative blood stream infections by 2023-24.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What steps he is taking to improve social care.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Local authorities have a duty to ensure people receive appropriate care and support. We have given them access to up to £3.9 billion more dedicated funding for adult social care this year, and a further £410 million has been made available for adult and children’s services.
We will set out our plans to reform the social care system at the earliest opportunity to ensure it is sustainable for the future.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 16 March 2018 to Question 132264 on Antibiotics: Drug Resistance, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of including (a) the latest electronic technology to reduce hospital infections and (b) other best practice on hand hygiene compliance in the prevention strand of the new antimicrobial resistance strategy.
Answered by Steve Brine
Infection prevention and control will remain a key pillar of the United Kingdom’s upcoming five-year national action plan on antimicrobial resistance.
NHS Improvement, who lead on infection prevention and control, has included a hand hygiene monitoring and compliance workstream in its current work programme.
NHS Improvement has undertaken a rapid review of evidence on the use of electronic monitoring devices across the National Health Service to determine hand hygiene compliance. The technology used in some trusts is currently reliant on local data infrastructure and many existing systems would not be able to support it.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 16 March 2018 to Question 132264 on Antibiotics: Drug Resistance, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of including (a) the latest electronic technology to reduce hospital infections and (b) other best practice on hand hygiene compliance in the prevention strand of the new antimicrobial resistance strategy.
Answered by Steve Brine
Infection prevention and control will remain a key pillar of the United Kingdom’s upcoming five-year national action plan on antimicrobial resistance.
NHS Improvement, who lead on infection prevention and control, has included a hand hygiene monitoring and compliance workstream in its current work programme.
NHS Improvement has undertaken a rapid review of evidence on the use of electronic monitoring devices across the National Health Service to determine hand hygiene compliance. The technology used in some trusts is currently reliant on local data infrastructure and many existing systems would not be able to support it.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to publish a new five year AMR Strategy, and whether that strategy will include best practice on infection prevention and control, including hand hygiene compliance.
Answered by Steve Brine
The current five year United Kingdom Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) strategy was published at the end of 2013. Work is underway to consider the priorities and focus for a refreshed strategy and national action plan for publication at the end of 2018. The refreshed strategy will continue to focus on preventing infections as one of its key pillars.
The current AMR programme has an ambition to halve healthcare associated Gram–negative blood stream infections by 2020/2021. NHS Improvement leads this work and has included hand hygiene in its work programme for 2018/19 in support of the ambition. As part of our work on the refreshed strategy, we will consider how to make best use of evidence-based and cost-effective technology.
We are working with our partners across the health and social care system, including the Care Quality Commission, to ensure that consideration of best practice in hand hygiene policies remains a focus of inspections in acute trusts.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve hand hygiene compliance in hospitals to tackle antimicrobial resistance; and what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of using health technology to improve such compliance.
Answered by Steve Brine
The current five year United Kingdom Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) strategy was published at the end of 2013. Work is underway to consider the priorities and focus for a refreshed strategy and national action plan for publication at the end of 2018. The refreshed strategy will continue to focus on preventing infections as one of its key pillars.
The current AMR programme has an ambition to halve healthcare associated Gram–negative blood stream infections by 2020/2021. NHS Improvement leads this work and has included hand hygiene in its work programme for 2018/19 in support of the ambition. As part of our work on the refreshed strategy, we will consider how to make best use of evidence-based and cost-effective technology.
We are working with our partners across the health and social care system, including the Care Quality Commission, to ensure that consideration of best practice in hand hygiene policies remains a focus of inspections in acute trusts.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve hand hygiene compliance in hospitals to tackle antimicrobial resistance; and what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of using health technology to improve such compliance.
Answered by Steve Brine
The current five year United Kingdom Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) strategy was published at the end of 2013. Work is underway to consider the priorities and focus for a refreshed strategy and national action plan for publication at the end of 2018. The refreshed strategy will continue to focus on preventing infections as one of its key pillars.
The current AMR programme has an ambition to halve healthcare associated Gram–negative blood stream infections by 2020/2021. NHS Improvement leads this work and has included hand hygiene in its work programme for 2018/19 in support of the ambition. As part of our work on the refreshed strategy, we will consider how to make best use of evidence-based and cost-effective technology.
We are working with our partners across the health and social care system, including the Care Quality Commission, to ensure that consideration of best practice in hand hygiene policies remains a focus of inspections in acute trusts.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to publish a new five year AMR Strategy, and whether that strategy will include best practice on infection prevention and control, including hand hygiene compliance.
Answered by Steve Brine
The current five year United Kingdom Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) strategy was published at the end of 2013. Work is underway to consider the priorities and focus for a refreshed strategy and national action plan for publication at the end of 2018. The refreshed strategy will continue to focus on preventing infections as one of its key pillars.
The current AMR programme has an ambition to halve healthcare associated Gram–negative blood stream infections by 2020/2021. NHS Improvement leads this work and has included hand hygiene in its work programme for 2018/19 in support of the ambition. As part of our work on the refreshed strategy, we will consider how to make best use of evidence-based and cost-effective technology.
We are working with our partners across the health and social care system, including the Care Quality Commission, to ensure that consideration of best practice in hand hygiene policies remains a focus of inspections in acute trusts.