Health: C. Difficile

Question

Asked by

Lord Taylor of Warwick
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they plan to achieve their target of reducing the number of hospital acquired Clostridium difficile infections by 55 per cent over the next three years. [HL3202]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Baroness Thornton)
While there has been significant and rapid progress in reducing C. difficile infections, some National Health Service organisations have not contributed as significantly as they could have done to these reductions. The key aim of the new C. difficile objective, starting in April 2011, will be to address this variation by driving the performance of all organisations towards the level of the best by setting a performance level for each NHS organisation (acute trusts and primary care organisations) based on its historical performance. The largest challenge will be for those organisations that have not contributed as significantly as they could have done to the progress made so far. The 55 per cent national reduction referred to is a consequence of successfully delivering the key aim of the objective.