The Scottish Governments's Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) Task Force 
The Scottish Governments HAI Task Force are responsible for taking the HAI work forward and have just embarked on a third programme of work for the period from March 2008 to April 20011. The HAI Task Force was formed in January 2003 and is let by the Chief Nursing Officer (Paul Martin, pictured right). The remit of the Task Force is to:
- Co-ordinate the development and implementation of the HAI Action Plan;
- Review progress in its implementation across the NHS in Scotland;
- Monitor the levels of HAI and assess the impact on them of control measures;
- Take forward amendments to the action plan or its component initiatives;
- Report on progress to the Minister of Health and Community Care and annually through the Chief Medical Officer's report, to the general public.
The problem of HAI is multi facetted. The membership of the Task Force reflects this and includes members from NHS and professional backgrounds as well as members of the public.
The approach that continues to be taken by the HAI Task Force focuses on identifying best practice and building it into the day to day routines of staff working in NHSScotland. The overarching principle is simple: infection control is everyone's business - medical and nursing staff, other healthcare professionals, cleaning staff, managers, patients and visitors. But everyone has their part to play in making the healthcare environment a safe place, so to be successful this commitment belongs to everyone - NHS staff, patients and the visiting public.
The Task Force have overseen a high quality programme over the last five years and the actions taken have stabilised rates of certain infections and reduced others. The next section entitled Delivery Plans gives you an idea of the work that has been done so far and a summary report of their work to date will be published on this website shortly. However, the overall rate of infection in our acute hospitals remains unacceptably high at 9.5% and so the Task Force has developed a third Delivery Plan which came into effect on 1 April 2008 HAI Task Force Delivery Plan 2008 - 2011. This is the first HAI programme in Scotland which is based on good evidence of the extent of infections in Scottish hospitals following the first ever Scottish Point Prevalence Survey published in July.
This new plan takes a fresh and more targeted approach to HAI with the aims of reducing the rate of infections in our healthcare environments, reducing the amount lost to the NHS in treating infections (estimated to be £183 million per year) and restoring public confidence in the NHS. The Scottish Government is supporting this third phase of work with funding of £54 million over three years. This is the biggest ever budget for HAI in Scotland.