Staff praised as infections continue to fall

Published: 19 June 2009

For immediate use: Thursday 18th June 2009

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) today commented on figures released by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) on healthcare associated infections between January and March 2009. The figures show that while infection rates are significantly lower than they were in the same quarter of last year, they are slightly higher than those of the previous quarter.

Dr Peter Carter, RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary, said:

"We can see from these figures that the hard work and innovation of healthcare staff in tackling MRSA and C.difficile is paying off in significantly reduced infection rates. This is understandably one of the major areas of concern for patients, and I am pleased to see that significant progress is being made.

"The leadership and innovation of nurses has been central to driving down infection rates, and improving the quality of care for all patients. However, these figures do show that while the general trend is a reduction in infections, the increase last winter demonstrates that challenges remain. Everybody working in the health service needs to fully understand why this occurs if we are to continue to make progress.

"One preventable case of MRSA or C.difficile is one too many, so more information needs to be made available to explain why some problems are persisting in spite of all the hard work put in by healthcare staff. Nurses need to be given the necessary training, authority and resources to ensure that infection rates continue to fall."
Ends

Notes for Editors

The report from the HPA can be found at http://www.hpa.org.uk/

For further information, interviews or illustrations please contact the RCN Media Office on 0207 647 3633, press.office@rcn.org.uk or visit http://www.rcn.org.uk/newsevents/media

Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is the voice of nursing across the UK and is the largest professional union of nursing staff in the world. The RCN promotes the interest of nurses and patients on a wide range of issues and helps shape healthcare policy by working closely with the UK Government and other national and international institutions, trade unions, professional bodies and voluntary organisations.