To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of C. difficile were recorded in Basildon Hospital in each of the last two years; what proportion of patients admitted to Basildon Hospital this represents in each of those years; and how these figures compare with equivalent figures from other NHS hospitals in (a) Essex and (b) England. (178843)

[holding answer 30 January 2008]: The information requested is not available.

The best available information is from the mandatory surveillance system operated for the Department by the Health Protection Agency (HPA). This provides data on the number of reports of Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infection. All acute national health service trusts in England are obliged to report all cases of C. difficile infection processed by their laboratories and the data are published at trust level.

Basildon hospital is part of the Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the following table shows the number of C. difficile infection reported for patients aged 65 years and over in the trust compared to other trusts in Essex and the total number in England for the last two full years.

The proportion of patients admitted to trusts compared to the number of C. difficile cases is not available. However the table shows the rate per 1,000 bed-days for patients aged 65 and over for the last two years of figures available.

The rate published by the HPA uses the total number of nights spent in hospital by patients aged 65 years and over for the relevant time period to calculate a rate of C. difficile infection per 1,000 bed-days.