Mark Garnier, Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman for Wyre Forest, today expressed concern at new official figures which have exposed an alarming spread of a new hospital superbug - Clostridium difficile ('C-diff'). Twice as many people are now dying from major hospital-acquired superbugs than are killed each year on the roads.
Government statistics show a staggering 69 per cent increase in deaths from C-diff, and an increase of 39 per cent from the MRSA superbug. Since Tony Blair and Gordon Brown came to power, deaths from MRSA have quadrupled, and in the last two years alone, deaths from C-diff have more than doubled.
A local breakdown of the deaths from C-diff is not published by the Government, but official figures show that across Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust, there were 455 infections reported among those aged 65 and over between January and September 2006.
Conservatives are calling for:
- The Government's top-down, national targets to be replaced with measures of outcomes which capture the whole patient experience. This will allow the NHS to tackle all hospital-acquired infections, rather than focus on one at the expense of another.
- Nurses to have adequate changing and laundry facilities - particularly given the hardiness of C-diff spores and their longevity on clothing.
- The NHS to respond rapidly to cases and outbreaks of C-diff, by screening patients with symptoms routinely and isolating them if necessary.
- Pilots to be undertaken of 'search and destroy' strategies - which have been used successfully in the Netherlands against MRSA - to determine their effectiveness in tackling C-diff.
Mark Garnier remarked,
"Labour Ministers are failing to face up to the dangers of MRSA and C-diff. I am very concerned that hardworking NHS staff are not getting the support they need to deliver a comprehensive strategy against hospital-acquired infections.
"The staggering increase in deaths from deadly superbugs is worrying enough. But the increasing presence of more dangerous strains of C-diff and MRSA will become an even bigger problem without an urgent and rigorous strategy now. Gordon Brown's savage bed cuts over the past two years have allowed deaths from C-Diff and MRSA to grow to an appalling level.
"The NHS is Conservatives' number one priority. We will give health care professionals the freedom and support they need to ensure patients receive the best care."