Infection Control

The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust takes infection prevention and control very seriously and has set an ambitious target to eliminate all avoidable healthcare associated infections. The 'zero tolerance to healthcare associated infections' strategy focuses on key measures that minimise the risks associated with developing an infection, incorporating service users, visitors and staff.

The robust systems and processes that we have in place help prevent and control infections that you may have heard of, such as MRSA and C. difficile, and have the additional benefit of helping with the prevention and control of other infections.

In order to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide care, NHS Trusts must take part in an assessment of whether they meet government regulations for managing infection, aimed at ensuring that patients, staff and others are protected against the identifiable risks of acquiring a health care associated infection, so far as is reasonably practicable.

The Countess of Chester Hospital has an 'unconditional registration' with the CQC for its management of health care associated infections.

The assessment is an extensive process, asking trusts to declare whether they are compliant with regulations. The CQC then cross-check this declaration with other performance information, including patient and staff surveys, annual CQC Inspection reports, trusts' declarations against core standards for infection prevention and control, and rates of MRSA and Clostridium difficile infection.

Countess of Chester Hospital Chief Executive Peter Herring said, "At the Countess, we treat over 400,000 patients per year, with around 50,000 inpatient and day case admissions. I am pleased to say the rates of infection are low and, even more importantly, becoming lower. Our 'zero tolerance to health care associated infections' strategy concentrates on hand hygiene, nursing procedures and antibiotic policies and the result of this is that the number of MRSA bacteraemia in the Countess has fallen dramatically over recent years."

Barbara Young, Chair of the CQC, said: "We know from recent decreases in rates of MRSA and Clostridium difficile that the picture on infection control is improving nationally. Most trusts have stronger systems to protect patients from infection than a few years ago, and trusts' boards are taking the challenges seriously. We commend them for that.

For more information, please click visit the Care Quality Commision website.

What can you and your visitors do to help?

The Trust welcomes service user feedback and we would encourage you to report what you think we do well and areas where you think we can improve. You can do this either by speaking directly to a member of staff within your ward or department, or by completing one of the 'comment cards', located at various information stations. You can also contact our Patient Advice and Liaison service (PALS).

For more information about how you can contribute to infection prevention and control, please refer to the following documents:

Infection Prevention and Control - Guidelines for patients

Infection Prevention and Control - Guidelines for visitors

MRSA - information for patients, staff and relatives

Clostridium Difficile - Information for patients, staff and relatives

 

MRSA and C. difficile

The Trust consistently monitors the number of MRSA blood stream and Clostridium difficile infections as part of the national mandatory surveillance programmes for these infections.

MRSA no. of cases

May11	Jun11	Jul11	Aug11	Sep11	Oct11	Nov11	Dec11	Jan12	Feb12	Mar12	Apr12
0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

 

C.Diff no. of cases

May11	Jun11	Jul11	Aug11	Sep11	Oct11	Nov11	Dec11	Jan12	Feb12	Mar12	Apr12
4	0	1	2	4	5	7	8	4	4	8	4

 

The Department of Health requires us to publish the Trust's MRSA screening policy and our MRSA Screening Assurance Statement. Click below to download both documents:

MRSA Screening policy

MRSA Screening Assurance Statement

You can click on this link to visit the Health Protection Agency website.

In addition, please click on the following link to visit the Department of Health website.