Scots hospitals face call to publish their superbug rates every week

Published on Sunday 4 July 2010 14:27

SCOTLAND should follow England's lead and start publishing weekly figures on the rate of deadly superbugs in every hospital, critics have claimed.

The Health Protection Agency is set to begin weekly publications of MRSA and Clostridium difficile data for all hospitals in England after Prime Minister David Cameron announced the move in May.

In Scotland, figures for each hospital are published only every two months, and that has led to calls for the frequency of reporting to be increased to give more details to patients and their families before they have to go in for treatment.

Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: "The lead being taken in England on hospital acquired infection reporting should be followed.

"So far, the Scottish Government's information portal has been deeply disappointing, with incomplete data and other inconsistencies, and it is not user friendly. We need clear and consistent reporting, hospital by hospital on a regular basis, for not just C difficile and MRSA but E coli too. Scotland should move to a weekly reporting regime as soon as possible so that patients know that their hospital is up to standard."

In England, the hope is that figures will eventually be broken down for each ward, so patients going into hospital can see levels before they are admitted.

If it proves a success, it could be extended so each hospital would have to reveal details on other infections.

Margaret Watt, chair of the Scotland Patients Association, said she thought weekly reporting was "a brilliant idea".

"It is sad that Scotland is behind England in doing this. We should be ahead of them," she said. "I think it is right to let the patients have this information so they can be prepared and take any precautions that they can take if they are going into one of these hospitals."

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said it supported up-to-date information being available to patients, but whether that should be weekly would depend on how much of a burden this would place on staff in terms of reporting.

Theresa Fyffe, the RCN's director for Scotland, said: "Nurses have been leading the fight against healthcare associated infections (HAIs] across the health service, and their efforts have resulted in a significant drop in infection rates.

"The public are entitled to know about infection rates and would gain confidence in their local hospitals if information on infection rates was made readily available.

"The Scottish Government's HAI taskforce is driving forward plans for all health boards to consistently report up-to-date information on infection rates and I look forward to seeing this implemented as one part of an overall strategy to tackle HAIs."

The Scottish Government said it was continually reviewing how often statistics were published.Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "We believe it is vital the public can get access to information about infection rates in their local hospital. That is why we have a dedicated page on our website to provide the links to this information on a hospital-by-hospital basis."

She went on: "We review monitoring arrangements on an ongoing basis and will consider the merits of increasing the frequency of reporting as part of this."