Reducing HCAIs 2010 - 'A Health Economy Approach' to Quality Care

"Going forward, the general consensus is that a health economy-wide approach is needed to deliver further improvements, including a joined-up approach from the acute trust, primary care trust and the regional health protection units. The Department and NHS believe that their responsibility in the future is to decrease the number of cases to an irreducible minimum."

Edward Leigh, Chair, Public Accounts Committee

GovToday announces the launch of Reducing HCAIs 2010 - 'A Health Economy Approach' to Quality Care Conference and Exhibition Conference and Exhibition, which will be held on the 16th June 2010, at Church House, Westminster.

Reducing HCAIs is a series of Conferences developed by GovToday to target the problem of Healthcare Associated Infections (HCAIs) in the health and social care system, 'acquired as a consequence of a person's treatment by a healthcare provider/worker in the course of their duties in hospital, or as a result of medical care delivered in the community'.

Patient safety, improving cleanliness and reducing HCAIs are the first of the five national priorities for the NHS in 2008/09 and 2009/10. With the Department for Health spending £16 million on HCAIs in 2008-09, funding the national work and the national team, with a similar figure expected for 2009-10.

The urgency of this agenda was given further credence when reducing HCAIs became the key requirement under the new registration process for all health and social care providers now regulated by the new Care Quality Commission. A process which began in April 2009, and will continue indefinitely across the wider health and social care sector from 2010.

Achieving 'the vision of seamless quality care between health and social care' is both the starting and finishing point of the agenda and has been the focus of the Government's strategy. Driving innovation and quality lies at the heart of this strategy and is the focus for development to date.

National progress on this agenda has saved lives, improved quality standards and productivity, saving the NHS £75 million; with a 62 per cent reduction in MRSA bloodstream infections in 2008-09, compared with a 2003-04 baseline, and 41 per cent for Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection rates.

However, publication of The Public Accounts Committee report 'Reducing Healthcare Associated Infection in Hospitals in England, Fifty-second Report of Session 2008-09' and 'Dr. Fosters Hospital Guide - Focus on Patient Safety' have revealed serious outstanding issues and suggested new priorities moving forward, the need to:

• Address the cost and effectiveness of the monitoring and regulatory process;
• Widen the remit to include other types/causes of infection; and
• Reduce the prevalence of infection through increased surveillance and available comparative data, monitor antibiotic resistance and adopt a 'zero tolerance' management approach from 'board to ward'.

Reducing HCAIs 2010 - 'A Health Economy Approach' to Quality Care provides an opportunity for the regulators, leaders within the health and social care sector, the clinicians and patient representative groups to debate the best paths to progress, to identify problem areas and to offer solutions moving forward, providing a showcase of success for the future.