March 2010 News Letter

Below is a brief summary of the March 2010 Newsletter
A full copy has been sent to all members and is freely available upon request
info@nc-hi.com

Welcome:
Firstly we would like to say a huge thank you to Sheila and her friend Debbie for raising the amount they did on their January fundraiser.  Also a thank you to the generous donations that have come in over the last few weeks it really is much appreciated. We would also like to extend our best wishes to the Bradshaw family.  Liz still remains in hospital after being admitted 8 July 2009, thankfully she is now off life support and is able to communicate with her family, they are now awaiting a bed becoming available on the rehabilitation unit. Condolences also go to the Mitchell family who lost their Mum at the beginning of February.

Tranforming Care at Home:
Measures to shape NHS services around individual patients were set out on 18 February by Health Secretary Andy Burnham.  Focusing on providing care at home can also have a significant impact for social care.  A report out (Thursday 18 Feb) from the Audit Commission shows that older people who have the opportunity to be looked after in their own home if they want to are happier and there are less costs to the taxpayer.  There are already examples of how being innovative can have significant outcomes and save money - for example, for the cost of just one month's care package, a home can be equipped with sensors and pagers to help a family look after a relative with dementia.  Other measures include providing more services at home for children and young people who have acute or long-term conditions or disability or palliative care needs, and giving more people the option to die at home if they wish to.

Enhanced cleaning of near patient hand-touch sites can reduce MRSA infections:
Dr Stephanie Dancer and co-workers have studied the impact of one additional cleaner on hospital wards. Enhanced cleaning was associated with a 32.5% reduction in levels of microbial contamination at hand-touch sites when wards received enhanced cleaning. Near-patient sites (lockers, over-bed tables and beds) were more frequently contaminated with MRSA/S. aureus than sites further from the patient. Genotyping identified indistinguishable strains from hand-touch sites and patients, supporting the possibility that patients acquired MRSAfrom environmental sources. There was a 26.6% reduction in new MRSAinfections on the wards receiving extra cleaning, despite higher MRSApatient-days and bed occupancy rates during enhanced cleaning periods. Adjusting for MRSApatient-days and based upon nine new MRSAinfections seen during routine cleaning, they expected 13 new infections during enhanced cleaning periods rather than the four that actually occurred. Clusters of new MRSAinfections were identified 2 to 4 weeks after the cleaner left both wards. It was estimated that enhanced cleaning saved the hospital £30,000 to £70,000.
The report can be found at BMC Medicine 2009. 
Other articles covered in this newsletter include:

• Root Cause Analysis ‘is’ critical to Patient Safety:
• Patient dignity improved by side-tying hospital gowns:
• Benefits of developing leg ulcer services in college:
• CQC 5 year strategy plan:
• CQC Inspection Programme on HCAIs reports:

Members Postbag:

• Our thoughts
• Birthday greetings:
• News
• Transforming Care in the community: Comments Bev Hurst
• Your thoughts and ideas:
• Membership & Website news

NCHI Meetings:
Below is a list of all meetings attended by our representatives a full copy of meetings are available upon request: info@nc-hi.com or 01942 208804
4 Feb:
Patient Safety Conference: QE11 Conference Centre: London.  Pfizer contacted NCHI as they were sponsoring one of the breakout sessions and Graham agreed to be a guest speaker.
8 -9 Feb:
BSAC quality improvement workshop: The Belfry Hotel: Sutton Coldfield: delegates Bev Hurst & Graham Tanner (unfortunately Bev had to offer apologies due to sickness)
11 -12 Feb:
Dept of Health: QIPP programme: Safe Care Design Event: Dr Maxine Power – National Clinical Advisor: has invited Bev to be one of the stakeholders again Bev could not attend but will still remain involved and will be commented on draft proposals
23 – 25 Feb:
4th Global Patients Congress: Istanbul: Turkey: guest speaker Bev Hurst: delegate Doreen Marsden.

Contact details:
Committee Members 

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