Health Bill

I apologise to the hon. Member for Westbury (Dr. Murrison) and others if they feel that the new draft code was placed in the Library unheralded. I cleared it for publication at the weekend and wrote to the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. Lansley) and all members of the Committee. However, the letters notifying them that the code was available were posted only yesterday at 4.15 pm. I apologise if they have not arrived and I hope that hon. Members will accept my apologies. I ask hon. Members to be clear and careful with the figures that they use for deaths. It is easy for confusion in the mind of the public to lead to greater anxiety than necessary. I do not suggest that MRSA and health care-acquired infections are not a cause for concern—they are. However, I am worried about the figure of 5,000 deaths. The only figures on which we rely are those for 2003, which show that 955 death certificates mentioned MRSA. Of those, 321 identified MRSA as an underlying cause of death.