The Scottish Governments's Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) Task Force
The Scottish Government's HAI Task Force is responsible for taking the HAI work forward and has just embarked on a third programme of work for the period from March 2008 to April 2011. The HAI Task Force was formed in January 2003 and is led by the Chief Nursing Officer. 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 Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing and annually 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 Delivery Plans give an idea of the work that has been done so far and a summary report has been published sumarising the work of the first two delivery plans. 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 2007.
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, the is the biggest ever budget for HAI in Scotland. This will encompas a wide range of measures to tackle healthcare assocaited infections, including the roll out of a national MRSA screening programme, a new target to reduce clostridium difficile by 30% and a zero tolerance approach to healthcare staff who don't follow hand hygiene rules.
Following a significant outbreak of clostridium difficile in the Vale of Leven Hospital in early 2008, an Independent Review was comissioned. Following its publication, an additional National Action Plan was developed to supplement the work of the Delivery Plan.