Agencies Urge The NHS To Step Up Measures To Minimise Risk Of Patients Contracting Clostridium Difficile, UK

Link: Agencies

   The Health Protection Agency and the Healthcare Commission today (Wednesday) urged the health service to do more to minimise the risk to patients of Clostridium difficile (C. difficile).

C. difficile is a healthcare-associated infection that can cause diarrhoea, sometimes more serious conditions and occasionally death.

The call comes as interim findings of a joint survey, released today, reveal that over a third of trusts surveyed do not routinely follow government guidelines on the management of C. difficile infection in their hospitals.

The survey aimed to provide more information about C. difficile and the measures trusts have in place to deal with the infection.

The agencies are publishing interim findings now, as winter is when the prevalence of C. difficile tends to be highest. More detailed findings will be published in spring 2006.