SCOTTISH hospitals have been told to cut clostridium difficile cases by 30% over the next three years in a drive to cut down the incidence of the bacterium that claimed the lives of almost 600 people last year.
The new target was announced yesterday by Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon as she seeks to rebuild confidence in the National Health Service.
Last year saw 6,430 C difficile cases in Scottish hospitals and care homes, of which 597 were fatal. The
infection, which elderly patients and those on antibiotics are particularly vulnerable to, was directly responsible for 220 fatalities and contributed to 377.
Earlier this year, the bacterium was the underlying cause of the deaths of 18 elderly patients at Vale of Leven Hospital, West Dunbartonshire. A total of 55 people were treated for the bug.
Addressing the SNP conference in Perth, Sturgeon said: "I commissioned a report into the C difficile outbreak at the Vale of Leven hospital. It made grim reading. The failures that were documented so graphically in that report are, thankfully, not typical in our hospitals. But that doesn't mean we don't have work to do.
"Infection rates in all of our hospitals are too high. Hospital infections cause pain, distress and suffering for patients and their families. And they undermine confidence in our health service.
"That is why nothing is more important to me personally than driving down hospital infections."
Of the £54m already allocated to tackling hospital-acquired infections, £2m will go to Scotland's 14 NHS boards to start the programme.
Under the new Health Efficiency Access to Treatment Target, the Scottish Government aims to cut the current rate of 1.4 cases per 1,000 occupied beds by a third.
"By 2011, all NHS Boards will be expected to have reduced the rate of C difficile in their hospitals by at least 30%. That is a tough target, and the very highest standards of hospital cleanliness will be required to meet it," Sturgeon said.
The SNP would not be drawn on what sanctions would be available to the Scottish Government should NHS Boards miss that target.
In her speech on the second-last day of the conference, Sturgeon also pledged that there would be no more privatisation of hospital cleaning and catering services.
The move was described by SNP aides as another effort to "dismantle the Thatcherite legacy" that built on the Scottish Government's pledge to kick-start a new generation of council house-building.
In August, Sturgeon told Scotland on Sunday that she wanted to see hospitals cleaned by NHS staff rather than privately contracted firms.
The move was welcomed by the Royal College of Nursing Scotland. Jane McCready, chairman of the organisation, said: "We are pleased that the Scottish Government is bringing all cleaners into the NHS family so that all staff can work together to ensure the highest-quality patient care."
Elsewhere in her speech, Sturgeon announced that she would be laying regulations in Parliament to extend eligibility for the fuel poverty programme. Families on income support with children under five or families with disabled children under the age of 16 would be allowed to take part in the scheme.
The full article contains 534 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
