Party's 15-point plan for safer hospitals

SCOTLAND must aim to cut rates of C difficile in hospitals by 50 per cent in the next two years, Scottish Labour said today.

Party's 15-point plan for safer hospitals

SCOTLAND must aim to cut rates of C difficile in hospitals by 50 per cent in the next two years, Scottish Labour said today.

Working with leading infection experts, the party has produced a 15-point plan, which it says will help to make hospitals cleaner and safer if adopted by the Scottish Government.

Proposals include creating a target to cut C difficile rates by 50 per cent by March 2011, compared with the 30 per cent target currently in place. Labour said current targets to cut C difficile, which affects thousands of patients a year, were not ambitious enough.

Jackie Baillie, MSP, said other proposals include the creation of a hospital acquired infection "commissioner" to oversee the "clutter" of agencies currently tackling infections and more in-depth analysis of bugs to identify more virulent strains.

They also want better hand-washing facilities in all hospital wards and more single rooms to isolate all infected patients. The proposals were developed in consultation with Professor Brain Toft, professor of patient safety at Coventry, and the Aberdeen-based microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington.