Ten acute trusts, six primary care trusts, four mental health care trusts and one ambulance trust have had conditions imposed on them, based, in a number of cases, on their current failure to “achieve required standards for infection control”, as part of the first ever registration of NHS Trusts by new regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Among the conditions were ongoing requirements, such as keeping wards clean, and others with a 1-8 month deadline. In all 388 NHS Trusts were registered, after all were asked to declare whether they were compliant with the regulations. The Commission then checked the data provided against information including patient and staff surveys, Healthcare Commission hygiene inspection findings, and rates of MRSA and Clostridium difficile infection. The CQC “commended” most Trusts for improving infection control and said infection rates were falling, but 21 Trusts’ registration was made subject to legally enforceable conditions. In 13 cases Trusts declared non-compliance with some CQC registration criteria, while a further eight had “failed to achieve required standards of infection control on repeated occasions”, had high infection rates, and / or had been identified by the Healthcare Commission as having “substantial issues” representing a potential patient safety risk at inspections last year. Barbara Young, CQC chair, said: “We have placed rigorous conditions on these 21 Trusts’ registration and will monitor them closely. While their infection rates are not necessarily higher, they can do more to strengthen their approaches to infection control and help prevent outbreaks.” Registration on healthcare-associated infection is the first step towards full registration on all basic standards, a regime due to take effect from April 2010.
