Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reason the question in the NHS Staff Survey relating to the availability of hand washing materials was removed (a) as a key indicator for the 2014 NHS Staff Survey and (b) as a question from the survey altogether.

The NHS Staff Survey Advisory Group (the Group) reviews the questions in the NHS Staff Survey to ensure they remain relevant and useful to the service.

The Group concluded that the question in the NHS Staff Survey relating to the availability of hand washing materials, introduced to help National Health Service organisations reduce the prevalence of e.g. infections from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and clostridium difficile (c-difficile), was now of limited value to trusts.

This is because responses to the question had shown a very big increase and had remained high over the last couple of years and because activity can vary at ward level and staff survey results are not usually reported to ward level but at directorate or department level. In addition, more accurate data regarding the availability of infection control measures is picked up through other mechanisms for example patient safety audits.

NHS organisations have the option of including additional local questions in their survey to cover issues of particular local interest, so any organisations who feel that hand washing and the availability of cleaning materials may still be an issue for them are able to continue to include the question if they so wish.