Government drive to defeat superbug

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Health Secretary Alan Johnson set out how hospital trusts across England should invest the £270 million already announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) for infection control.

He said up to £45 million could be spent on specialist staff - the equivalent of two infection control nurses, two isolation nurses and an anti-microbial pharmacist in every trust.

This would back up existing moves to screen patients entering hospital and a campaign to cut the use of antibiotics, which can help the bug Clostridium difficile thrive.

From next month, the Government will campaign to cut the use of antibiotics across the health service, aiming for "less of a knee-jerk reaction to prescribing", Mr Johnson said.

As well as educating doctors, the Government wants the public to realise that antibiotics will not help common ailments like coughs and colds.

Mr Johnson said doctors faced pressure from patients to prescribe antibiotics even when they were inappropriate.

An increasing emergence of antibiotic-resistant infections and other factors meant "prudent prescribing is required", he said.

And he insisted the Government would stay focused on the issue of infections as it released a new guide called Clean, Safe Care.

Mr Johnson defended the "deep cleaning" of hospitals announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in September, which has been criticised as a "gimmick". He said patients wanted clean hospitals but admitted he did not have scientific evidence supporting the scrubs.