Bed closures will cause infection rates to rise at St Helier - Burstow

2.20.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 29th Jan 2007

Paul Burstow, MP for Sutton and Cheam, has branded bed closures planned by Epsom and St Helier Hospital Trust a "false economy", during a debate with Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt. The statement came during a debate in the House of Commons on health-care acquired infection rates.

Mr Burstow asked how Hospitals such as St Helier could be expected to keep infection rates low while using beds more intensively. Epsom and St Helier Hospital Trust plan to cut around 1 in 4 beds over the next 18 months, meaning that bed-occupancy rates for the remaining beds will be driven upwards.

Commenting after the debate, Paul Burstow MP said:

"Epsom and St Helier already has one of the worst rates of superbug Clostridium Difficile infections in the country."

"With fewer beds and fewer staff, the Trust will be forced to use existing beds more intensively, which will drive infection rates even higher."

"This is yet another example of the short-term thinking driven by the need to save - I fear that it will prove to be a false economy as the long-term costs of higher infection rates become apparent."

Notes to Editors:

Paul Burstow questioned Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt during a debate on health-care acquired infections on 23 January. A transcript of their exchange is below:

Paul Burstow MP: The Secretary of State mentioned the Health Protection Agency. One of the things that it has identified as being a factor behind hospital-acquired infections is bed occupancy rates. Can she comment on the fact that my local trust, Epsom and St. Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, has decided to cut 200 beds across the trust-one in four of the beds-thus requiring each bed to be used more intensively? Occupancy rates, therefore, will go up. Surely that is a false economy, and there will be a rise in infection rates unless there is very careful investment to deal with the infection consequences of beds being over-occupied.

Secretary of State Patricia Hewitt: The hon. Gentleman raises an important point. For every hospital, patient safety has to be the No. 1 priority. As he will understand, as hospitals do more day care surgery and bring down the lengths of stay by ensuring that patients go home when it is right and clinically safe for them to do so-instead of staying in hospital for an unnecessarily long time, which happens too often-they need fewer beds, while giving patients better care with better health outcomes.

On the issue of the relationship between occupancy rates and MRSA and other infections, hospitals throughout the country with high bed-occupancy rates are also reducing their health care-acquired infection rates.