A plan to extend the mandatory surveillance scheme for Clostridium difficile has been unveiled by the Chief Medical Officer for Wales Dr Tony Jewell today.
Currently only information on patients aged 65 and over is published, but this will now be extended to cover all confirmed cases of the infection in patients aged two and above. The Welsh Assembly Government will also issue a new protocol for testing for C.difficile to ensure consistency across Wales.
The new measures follow expert advice from the Welsh Healthcare Associated Infection team at the National Public Health Service for Wales and Welsh Assembly Government health professionals. The data will be published for the first time in September on the number of patients confirmed with C. difficile between January and the end of June 2008. Following an evaluation of the data, this will form part of the routine health associated infection publications in 2009.
Labour’s Health Minister Edwina Hart added: “We must remember that the vast majority of patients receive safe and effective care, and the risk of developing any type of healthcare associated infection is low. Our strategy for tackling all infections, which has been endorsed by the Wales Audit Office and Assembly’s Audit Committee, is paying off with lower infection rates in Wales. But we are not complacent and are working hard to drive them down even further.
While they will never be entirely preventable, there are measures in place to reduce the risk and spread of infection. Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, the independent organisation set up to inspect NHS settings, has appointed a number of peer reviewers to look at Trusts’ infection control procedures and the unannounced hospital cleanliness spot-checks will continue.”
