« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
7. Action Plan: Health Protection Scotland ( HPS)
The primary role for HPS relates to national surveillance, a complex process which involves establishing national data definitions and data collection systems; collation, analysis and interpretation of quality controlled data; and dissemination of information in a timely manner to those who need to know.
Health Protection Scotland collates, analyses and interprets data from the current voluntary national antimicrobial resistance surveillance programmes, including offering professional advice. HPS is also a key player in the development and implementation of many of the HAI Task Force initiatives. HPS should work closely with the Scottish Medicines Consortium as described above to achieve the ScotMARAP objectives.
The Steering Group fully supports the work of Health Protection Scotland and recommends that it should:
- continue to build on the existing work on surveillance of antimicrobial resistance, work with the Scottish Microbiology Forum to improve and standardise diagnostic and antimicrobial susceptibility testing methods and develop consistent reporting of key resistance markers for alert organisms and for specific sites (e.g. blood cultures), in line where possible with other UK and European countries. Also, to systematically monitor long term trends in antibiotic resistance.
- conduct and co-ordinate detailed quantitative epidemiology of selected antimicrobial resistant organisms to establish the true magnitude of resistance in the community.
- work closely with the National Medicines Utilisation Unit and Scottish Medicines Consortium to produce linked regular reports on antimicrobial consumption and antimicrobial resistance
- continue to develop the national surveillance programme to provide information which informs guidance on prudent antimicrobial prescribing, such as the Clostridium difficile and the surgical site infection surveillance programmes
- develop surveillance programmes at local and national levels as appropriate when new resistance mechanisms are identified through research and/or enhanced surveillance, in order to monitor spread and develop interventions in association with local teams and other national bodies
- apply standardised epidemiological methods to clarify whether the dissemination of any resistant infection is due to the spread of a previously recognised resistant strain or the acquisition of a new resistant clone.
« Previous | Contents | Next »