Trusts urged to recruit anti-infection staff

Trusts must spend the money on tackling infections, but they are under no obligation to spend the money on hiring extra staff.

At a briefing this week, health secretary Alan Johnson said: "We're not saying to every hospital you have to recruit, we're saying it's up to you to use the money in a way you think is best suited to tackling infection control in your area."

The Department of Health strategy document Clean, Safe Care: reducing infections and saving lives, recommends that trusts employ two infection control nurses, two isolation nurses and an anti-microbial pharmacist.

Trusts can recruit new staff or train existing nurses in infection control skills.

Mr Johnson also advocated tough measures for staff who refuse to wash their hands, after a Healthcare Commission follow-up report last November into the C difficile outbreak at Stoke Mandeville Hospital found a disproportionate number of doctors were not complying with hand hygiene rules (for more background, click here).

He said: "It's about washing hands, it's a real issue. It's about empowering patients to say: I didn't see you wash your hands.

"In Manchester they've made it a disciplinary offence not to [wash their hands] and it has had a dramatic effect."

The DH is working with trade unions to develop human resources procedures that will spread the infection-control message.

The health secretary said: "We're not going to direct it from the centre but it's very important."

The annual£270m investment in infection control is reflected in the 5.5 per cent increase in primary care trust allocations and a 2.3 per cent uplift to the national tariff.

In addition to the£45m for specialist staff announced this week, it also includes£130m for the introduction of MRSA screening and£140m by 2010-11 to reduce rates of C difficile.

Chief nursing officer Christine Beasley said it was unlikely that the new staff would simply replace nursing posts scrapped last year by trusts struggling to balance finances.

She said: "Undoubtedly last year was a tricky year for some specialist nurses. Not many of the lost posts were in infection control because it's a big issue for trusts."

The DH will also, as part of the strategy, expect all aspiring foundation trusts to consistently hit local targets on MRSA and C difficile.

Before the public consultation stage, strategic health authorities will need confirmation that the trust is achieving its agreed rate of improvement on infections.

Where there are concerns, the SHA must satisfy itself that robust action plans are in place to demonstrate actual improvement by the time the trust makes a final application to the DH.

HSJ's Patient Safety Congress is in London on 22-23 May. www.patientsafetycongress.co.uk