Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 53:"Page 9, line 31, at end insert—" ““( ) The code must establish procedures for the systematic recording and reporting of all incidences of health care associated infections acquired in hospital.”” The noble Baroness said: The intention behind these amendments, which I tabled before I had a chance to read the code of practice, was to draw the dearth of reliable information on healthcare-associated infection, on which policy must be based, to the attention of the Committee. As my honourable friend Stephen Williams mentioned during the passage of this Bill in another place, the figures produced in support of the Government’s proposals—stating that there is a prevalence of healthcare-associated infections, possibly leading to 5,000 deaths a year—are based on data from the USA generated in the 1980s. The figure in the accompanying material, that 9 per cent of hospital in-patients experience healthcare-acquired infection, is 10 years old. That base data is extremely old because there has been no effective, systematic recording of incidences in the intervening period. Indeed, since I have had the opportunity to read the code of practice to which the legislation refers, I cannot see that there is anywhere in the code a duty on a trust to record or report incidences of healthcare-acquired infection. As I said on the previous amendment, I am trying to ascertain how effective this code of practice will be in enabling healthcare workers to generate the data they need to tackle this problem in a realistic and effective way. That is the basis of Amendment No. 53. Amendment No. 55 requires guidance on good practice to be issued. A great deal of work is happening on this, with a great many conferences and events for healthcare workers, not least because it has been such a political hot potato since the general election last year. The actual development and sharing of good practice seems to those of us on this side of the Committee to be obscured, and is not drawn out extensively within the wealth of requirements on trusts set out in the code. These two amendments are being taken together to try to ensure that a good and reliable evidence base is generated for future practitioners. I beg to move.