As part of the Government’s radical agenda for setting government data free, patients and the public will be given more up-to-date information about their local hospital.
The Department of Health is publishing weekly hospital data on MRSA bloodstream infections and C. Difficile between February and April 2010. Previously, data was only published monthly and by NHS trust. From early July, infection figures for every NHS hospital in England will be updated on data.gov.uk weekly, giving statistics for each of the previous 12 weeks.
Patients are rightly concerned about healthcare associated infections (HCAIs). Weekly MRSA and C. Difficile data will provide vital information to help them make informed choices about their healthcare. It will increase transparency and allow people to see how well their hospital is tackling infections and hold them to account over performance.
The NHS has already significantly reduced MRSA and C. Difficile but this new move will help to drive up standards to those of the best by giving patients the information they need to compare and choose hospitals.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said:
"This is an important step towards our broader plans to provide more relevant information to patients.
"It will enable people to make meaningful choices because they will be able to make comparisons between different hospitals and healthcare organisations.
"We want to make the large amounts of data that are already collected and used internally in the NHS work for patients, not just managers. All information that is useful and relevant to patients should be published in an accessible and open way.
"So as well as publishing healthcare acquired infections on a monthly basis, we will publish them weekly. We will give patients access to current information, with only a week between data collection and publication. And as well as data being published at a hospital trust level, which may include the figures for as many as three different hospital sites, we will disaggregate the data to individual hospitals. In time we will also add other healthcare associated infections, like E. coli and MSSA to the list.”
This new focus will drive further reductions in infections, meaning better quality care and outcomes for patients. Better quality care can lead to financial savings for the NHS, as lower infection rates mean patients spend less time in hospital.
The Department of Health will also explore how to go even further, for example by providing data on other infections and by looking at whether information could be published at department or ward level while respecting the confidentiality of individual patients. In addition, we will look at whether hospitals are collecting some data that is not needed – if so, this will be stopped in order to lessen the burden of data collection on the NHS.
The Department of Health is publishing weekly hospital data on MRSA bloodstream infections and C. Difficile between February and April 2010. Previously, data was only published monthly and by NHS trust. From early July, infection figures for every NHS hospital in England will be updated on data.gov.uk weekly, giving statistics for each of the previous 12 weeks.
Patients are rightly concerned about healthcare associated infections (HCAIs). Weekly MRSA and C. Difficile data will provide vital information to help them make informed choices about their healthcare. It will increase transparency and allow people to see how well their hospital is tackling infections and hold them to account over performance.
The NHS has already significantly reduced MRSA and C. Difficile but this new move will help to drive up standards to those of the best by giving patients the information they need to compare and choose hospitals.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said:
"This is an important step towards our broader plans to provide more relevant information to patients.
"It will enable people to make meaningful choices because they will be able to make comparisons between different hospitals and healthcare organisations.
"We want to make the large amounts of data that are already collected and used internally in the NHS work for patients, not just managers. All information that is useful and relevant to patients should be published in an accessible and open way.
"So as well as publishing healthcare acquired infections on a monthly basis, we will publish them weekly. We will give patients access to current information, with only a week between data collection and publication. And as well as data being published at a hospital trust level, which may include the figures for as many as three different hospital sites, we will disaggregate the data to individual hospitals. In time we will also add other healthcare associated infections, like E. coli and MSSA to the list.”
This new focus will drive further reductions in infections, meaning better quality care and outcomes for patients. Better quality care can lead to financial savings for the NHS, as lower infection rates mean patients spend less time in hospital.
The Department of Health will also explore how to go even further, for example by providing data on other infections and by looking at whether information could be published at department or ward level while respecting the confidentiality of individual patients. In addition, we will look at whether hospitals are collecting some data that is not needed – if so, this will be stopped in order to lessen the burden of data collection on the NHS.
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