To ask the Secretary of State for Health what projections her Department has made of the number of cases of (a) MRSA and (b) Clostridium difficile likely to arise in each quarter of each of the next two years, broken down by NHS trust; and if she will make a statement. (116219)

The Department has not made projections of this kind.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what projection the Department has made of the change in the number of cases of MRSA likely to have occurred by April 2008; and if she will make a statement. (116220)

The Department has in place a national target, to halve the rate of meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream infections by March 2008. Reducing rates of MRSA and other healthcare associated infections is one of the four development priorities in the national health service operating framework for 2007-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 14 November 2005, Official Report, columns 967-98W, on hospital-acquired infection, on what date the study of deaths associated with healthcare-associated infections started; when she expects the main phase of the study to be completed; whether she plans to publish the report relating to the main phase of the study; whether her Department has received the interim report into the pilot phase of the confidential qualitative study; whether she plans to publish the interim report; and if she will make a statement. (116147)

The confidential study of deaths following healthcare associated infection started in August 2005. The main phase of the two-year study is expected to be complete by end July 2007.

The interim end of year one report was submitted to the Department in September 2006 and was published on the Health Protection Agency’s (HPA) website at:

www.hpa.org.uk/cdr/archives/2006/cdr5006.pdf.

A full report will be published after the study is completed.

Notes:

HPA, Office for National Statistics. National Confidential Study of Deaths Following Healthcare Associated Infection and HPA/ONS Data Linkage Study. Year 1 report (1 August 2005 to 31 July 2006).

London: Health Protection Agency, 2006.

www.hpa.org.uk/infections/topics_az/mortality/HPA_ONS_first_year_report_MRSA_deaths_study.pdf