NHS hospitals win extra cash to fight superbugs such as E.coli

14th of December 2016
NHS hospitals win extra cash to fight superbugs such as E.coli

Extra funds are to be pumped into the NHS to help UK hospitals tackle the current superbug crisis.

The €53.8 million cash injection will be shared among the nation's hospitals in a bid to reduce infection rates. And the Government plans to improve transparency by forcing hospitals to publish staff hand hygiene figures.

According to the Government, cases of E.coli exceeded 38,000 last year - a 6,000 increase since 2013. A third of E.coli infections are now antibiotic-resistant and are twice as deadly as those that can be treated with drugs, claims the Department of Health.

"The best way to make sure antibiotics continue to work is by minimising their use, which means we need to start a new war on avoidable hospital infections," said health secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Hospitals will be asked to reduce E.coli infections by 10 per cent and use antibiotics appropriately. Wards will be told to display E.coli rates as well as staff hand hygiene figures based on the amount of hand gel they use.

More than 5,500 people died from E.coli infections in UK hospitals last year - many of them from antibiotic-resistant strains. However, rates of MRSA and C.difficile have both reduced with numbers of cases dropping by 57 per cent and 45 per cent respectively.

 

 

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