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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Miss Melanie Johnson): I beg to move, To leave out from "House" to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof:
'welcomes the Government's commitment to tackle hospital acquired infections with a robust programme for improving standards in infection control; congratulates the Government on
- its action plan for reducing infection rates, "Towards cleaner hospitals and lower rates of infection", and the introduction of the new target to halve the rate of MRSA in the first instance, and the appointment of local directors of infection prevention and control to cut cross infection locally; supports the Chief Medical Officer's action plan "Winning Ways"; recognises that MRSA is a longstanding problem that became endemic in the National Health Service between 1993 and 1997 and believes that this Government is to be congratulated on introducing a system of mandatory surveillance for MRSA to establish its full extent; notes that the Government is working with experts from home and abroad to identify the actions and best practice which will make a difference, including a matron's charter, a national hand hygiene campaign, improved standards and better inspection of hospital cleanliness; and therefore congratulates the Government on its comprehensive programme of investment and reform that has equipped the NHS to deliver improvements in patient safety, and to reduce hospital acquired infections.'
I would like to get to some facts about why infections occur, about the solutions and what we are doing about them, about targets, about support for the NHS and about the whole issue of cleanliness, but I must start by asking why the Opposition have chosen so systematically to attack the NHS and to politicise the issue so consistently.
Last week, when the Office for National Statistics announced the new figures about MRSA on death certificates, it took the Leader of the Opposition only a couple of hours to hold a party political press conference attacking the NHS. In that press conference he had the opportunity to tell the country that while he was in the Cabinet, between 1993 and 1997, the percentage of Staphylococcus aureus isolates that were methicillin resistant, that is MRSA, increased from 5 per cent. to 30 per cent., and it has only now settled at just over 40 per cent. He also had the opportunity on that occasion of saying what he thought about the comment from Geraldine Cunningham of the Royal College of Nursing—whose comments have already been referred to—criticising the Leader of the Opposition's soundbite, saying:
"It sounds great, but how do you translate it? It is much more complex than just closing a ward. Actually, there are always patients in wards. If you moved them you would spread the infection."
Tim Loughton: I am mystified, because one of the main criticisms of the Secretary of State is always that hospital-acquired infection rates were apparently not collected under the last Government, so how is the Minister using these figures against us, when apparently we did not collect them?
Miss Johnson: We are using figures produced by the Government's chief scientist. [Interruption.] We will come back to the retrospective bit in a minute. I am very happy to go over some of the past with the hon. Gentleman, because I think that he will find that it is other than as he said.
The Leader of the Opposition also had the opportunity in the press conference to comment on the revealing statement by his colleague, the absent shadow Secretary of State for Health, the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. Lansley), when last June he said:
Perhaps the fact that he is not here means that he dare not show his face and respond. [Interruption.] I am happy to see the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) defending his hon. Friend.
Tim Loughton: My hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. Lansley) is busy visiting hospitals today, as it is right that he should. Unlike the Minister's team, the Opposition's health team are multi-talented and multi-tasked. It does not require the shadow Secretary of State to make this case. This case is overwhelming.
Miss Johnson: It is dangerous for a Member of the male-dominated—exclusively, bar one—Opposition Benches to talk about multi-tasking when those of both genders on the Labour Benches are talented and have so many more women who are so good at multi-tasking. I shall respond to the hon. Member for West Chelmsford (Mr. Burns) who is waving at me in a moment, but first I want to deal with another matter.
The hon. Member for Westbury (Dr. Murrison) is a member of the Opposition Front-Bench health team, and this is what he said about his local hospital in the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald:
"it is easy to cut and paste giving the impression that an institution is generally bad and filthy when it is not."
That summarises the Tory approach to MRSA.
The hon. Member for West Chelmsford said:
the growing problem of MRSA in our hospitals—
However, that is what his party is calling for. He continued:
"efforts naturally have to be made to ensure that more is done to minimise and reduce the incidence of the problem, and I believe that cleanliness in our hospitals is a key factor in achieving that."—[Official Report, 8 September 2004; Vol. 424, c. 810.]
I shall return to cleanliness in a moment.
The remarks by the hon. Member for Westbury about his local hospital are also true of the NHS. I would be delighted to take an intervention if he wants to defend himself.
Dr. Murrison: Will the Minister take this opportunity to condemn the "Horizon" programme, to which I think that she is referring, for cutting and pasting? I hope that we achieve a good overview of cleanliness in our NHS, which is what this debate is about, and I am sorry that she has chosen to quote selectively, which does her no credit.
Miss Johnson: What the hon. Gentleman has said about his local hospital is also true of the NHS. It is easy for the Leader of the Opposition to give the impression that the NHS is generally filthy, when it is not.
The hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham could have commented on the issues or outlined his policy, but he attacked the NHS with a soundbite. Instead of soundbites, let us examine the real improvements. Reducing infections is a top priority for the NHS, because hospital-acquired infections, including MRSA, cause illness, pain, anxiety, longer stays in hospital and sometimes, regrettably, death.
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Since her appointment last October, our new chief nursing officer, Christine Beasley, has led a wide-ranging programme to improve both infection control and hospital cleanliness, which should reduce infection rates.
Let us move beyond the Opposition's soundbites to how such infections, which come from a wide variety of micro-organisms, are caused. By the way, the figure of 5,000 deaths mentioned by the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham relates not to MRSA, but to hospital-acquired infections, which cover a wide range of infections, including bacteria from our own bodies. Unfortunately, not all hospital-acquired infections are preventable.
Many factors contribute to the problem, including the treatment of more susceptible patients, such as those with severe or chronic diseases, than ever before. At the same time, advances in treatment that improve patients' survival chances, such as chemotherapy, can leave them more vulnerable to infections. Other factors, such as increased antibiotic resistance, are also important. No single, simple solution exists to that complex and multi-faceted problem, but the risk of contracting those infections can in part be reduced by simple and effective infection control measures.
Health care-acquired infections are a problem in not only the UK, but internationally. In the United States, Australasia and most European countries, including the UK, the number of patients who experience a hospital-acquired infection ranges between 4 and 10 per cent., which is a remarkably consistent set of statistics. Hospital-acquired infections are not a new phenomenon. Although medical practices change and different micro-organisms are involved, estimates that about 9 per cent. of in-patients in England acquire an infection have not changed since at least 1980.
The attack with which the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham concluded his gross distortion of the facts in opening the debate actually showed that nothing has changed since 1980. Health care-acquired infections have remained consistently at the same sort of rate across the piece.
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