« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
Foreword by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing
My Cabinet colleagues and I are grateful to the Scottish Government's HAI Task Force for producing this report, which reveals that an immense amount of work has gone into tackling Healthcare Associated infection ( HAI) in Scotland over the last five years.
HAI remain a serious threat to the health of our patients though and we are determined to bring infection rates down from those shown in the Scottish Point Prevalence Survey published last July. We are therefore making a multi-million pound investment in an intensive three year programme of HAI work which began on 1 April 2008. The HAI Task Force is the right body to take our new programme forward and I am pleased that it will continue to be at the heart of the delivery of the range of actions in the third HAI Delivery Plan, which can be viewed on the Scottish Government's website at: www.scotland.gov.uk/haitaskforce.
This is the first HAI programme in Scotland which is based on the evidence of the extent of infections in Scottish hospitals - as identified of the Scottish Point Prevalence Survey. We have set the HAI Task Force and NHS Boards a number of targets and challenges to meet in this key area over the next three years. For example, a national forum, "the Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group ( SAPG)" has been established to examine solutions to the overuse of antibiotics; we are raising the bar on hospital cleaning; setting higher hand hygiene compliance targets amongst staff; promoting the importance of hand hygiene to patients and visitors; investing £7 million to fund a one year pilot MRSA Screening Programme in three NHS Boards ( NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Grampian and NHS Western Isles) to determine the shape of the national screening programme which will begin from 2009/2010; and monitoring progress towards achieving the Health Efficiency Access Treatment Target ( HEAT) to reduce all staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (including MRSA) by 30% by 2010.
I have asked the HAI Task Force to provide me with regular accounts of progress on the way towards meeting our targets and it is tasked with publishing progress reports throughout this third phase of the HAI work programme, which is due to be completed by March 2011. I look forward to seeing considerable progress by NHS Boards towards tackling HAI in Scotland so far fewer patients are exposed to the risk of infection and so more patients feel safer and experience a better provision of care whilst in hospital.
NICOLA STURGEON
Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing
June 2008
« Previous | Contents | Next »