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Healthcare Associated Infections

From the public concerns of a few, came the flood of worry from many. The Patients Association has been campaigning on Infection Control Patients began to hear about other patients' experiences, and as they did so individuals gained the courage to speak out about what had happened to them. Patients think that they are alone, more often than not, turn to the Patients Association and are reluctant to speak out for a variety of reasons. We know that they are not alone and share the problems associated with healthcare infections with many thousands of others, without regard to age or circumstance.

The History of Our Campaign

The Patients Association has undertaken a series of studies and published reports on the state of cleanliness and the rates of infection in NHS hospitals. We recognise that the problem is more than just keeping a ward free from dust and dirt. We aim to explore a range of issues affecting the safety of patients including hand-washing; the use of antibiotics; decontamination issues; the physical environment of hospitals; disinfectant use; sterile barriers; sharing and introducing good practice and technologies.

The Patients Association has undertaken a rolling programme in the field of Infection Control and Patient Safety since 2000. 

Early Campaigns

Our first report, Hospital Acquired Infection and the Reuse of Medical Devices in 2000, attracted major publicity and led to significant new policy and investment by the Department of Health. The 2001 report was entitled The Decontamination of Surgical Instruments: A Survey of Hospital Staff in the UK, and was designed to probe for progress with the implementation of Health Service Circular 2000/032.

Another of our reports in 2002 was based on a survey of the new Strategic Health Authorities . Infection Control and Medical Device Decontamination – A survey of Strategic Health Authorities  assessed how much the SHAs would be following the decontamination and medical device issue under the new local agenda and Shifting the Balance.

In October 2004 we conducted a survey among healthcare professionals which revealed five percent of those questioned did not clean their instruments between patients; more than a half reused sterilising fluid; many endoscopes never madeit to the Central Sterile Department at the end of each clinic; and there were no uniform guidelines on who was responsible for sterilisation, or what they should do. The 'Infection Control and Medical Devices survey also showed that 35 percent of those questioned had never heard of the Chief Medical Officers 2003 report “Winning Ways”, which identified intensified control measures as essential to defeat healthcare associated infection.

Unsurprisingly, the survey also revealed that patients were not informed about infection control measures and 68 % of respondents said that patients were not told what measures were taken to keep medical instruments clean.  

2005

In March 2005 we published our report Tracking Medical Devices and the Implications for Patient Safety  in collaboration with the Institute of Decontamination Sciences, the Infection Control Nurses Association and the National Association of Theatre Nurses. The purpose and timing of the report was to shed light on the key patient safety issue of medical device management.

This came at a time when fundamental decisions were being made about the future management of medical devices under the Super Centre investment programme.Some Trusts planned to use Centralised Sterilisation Centres whils others kept sterilisation in-house, leaving a mixed provision of decontamination facilities.

Together with these reports, and with the increasing concerns of many patients,The Patients Association initiated The Clean Hospital Summit. 

Clean Hospital Summit and 100 Day Challenge

In April 2005 we held the first ever Clean Hospital Summit to explore these very issues, with delegates and speakers from government, clinical staff, NHS providers and of course patients. Alongside the organised conference the summit also contained an exhibition of innovation and best practice to offer solutions. A great deal of knowledge and expertise was brought together to help healthcare facilities across the country improve safety of patients; through learning from each other, introducing new technology and good practice, the number of patients acquiring, and often dying, from an infection in hospital could be reduced.

The Summit marked the commitment of all the participants to work towards reducing infections acquired by patients in hospital and gave rise to the 100 Day Challenge. Together with mandatory reporting of some infections and published standards by statutory organisations, such as the Healthcare Commission, this Report aimed to ensure that patients and patient organisations were informed of the measures that are taken by hospitals to protect patients from infections and information is made available to them.

The Patients Association did not shirk from its responsibilities to make this information public. In previous surveys senior clinical staff had warned us that patients should not be informed of the dangers they are exposed to from infections and much information is still kept hidden from public scrutiny. The 100 Day Challenge was one small step towards greater openness and accountability of health services.

2006 Campaign

Following the success of 2005 we held a second summit in May 2006, entitled Cleaner Hospitals, Safer Healthcare. We again put Infection Control firmly on the political map with our range of expert speakers whilst also recognising those who had contributed most to patient safety during the previous year with the Patients Association Awards, held in the evening.

 A report of the 2006 Cleaner Hospitals, Safer Healthier conference can be found in the May 2007 ediion of our Patient Voice Magazine.

Infection Control - Is It Only Skin Deep?

Following the summit the Patients Association continued its campaign with research into the situation on the the Infection Control frontline. In November 2006 we launched our report Infection Control –Is It Only Skin Deep? in which we surveyed those involved in Infection Control across the country.

The results were shocking and showed that over 90% of respondents had to spend clinical time reassuring patients worried about catching Healthcare Associated Infections. Nearly half (45%) said that not all relevant staff were adequately trained in infection control practices.

Director of Communications at the Patients Association, Katherine Murphy said at the time of the report's publication, “Patients are entitled to a safer, more secure system for combating Healthcare Associated Infections.The NHS cannot afford the waste caused by this situation – wasted money, wasted patient recovery time – bed blocking – and wasted professional time.

Unless control of healthcare-associated infection is everyone’s top priority from the Secretary of State down, taxpayers will be short changed and patients will continue to die needlessly."

EPIC Guidelines

In February 2007 The Patients Association welcomed additional national guidelines for preventing healthcare-associated infections in the form of the epic2 guidelines published in February 2007.

For more details about the epic 2 guidelines please click here.

The Patients Association continues to campaign for Infection Control to remain the highest government priority. We welcomed the additional funding promised, in July 2007 by the new Secretary of State, Alan Johnson for frontline Infection Control staff but are increasingly concerned by the rates of Infection. We continue to receive regular enquiries to our Helpline that show Healthcare Associated Infections are still a major concern for many patients.

For more information to reduce the risk of catching an infection please visit The Patients Association Ten Top Tips.

All of our reports can be downloaded from this site. Please see our Research Publications page for more details

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