Howard unveils MRSA plans
Tory leader Michael Howard has unveiled a £52m ten-point action plan to tackle the MRSA hospital superbug as party leaders clashed over health policy
The plan, dubbed the "matron's budget" would put her in charge of deciding whether to close an infected ward.
It would also mean all wards having access to 24-hour cleaning and increased hygiene.
Howard, whose mother-in-law died from a hospital-acquired infection, launched his plan after visiting a hospital in Tooting, south London.
The Conservative leader told a London news conference: "Florence Nightingale once said that the very first requirement in hospital is that it should do the sick no harm.
"Under Mr Blair our hospitals are failing in that most basic duty. Let's be clear - MRSA is avoidable. We live in an advanced 21st century country with ever more sophisticated healthcare. Advances in medical technology have seen rare and congenital diseases tamed - eliminated one by one.
"But Mr Blair's obsession with targets has created a culture in which the superbug thrives."
Earlier, health minister John Hutton, shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley and Liberal Democrat health spokesman Paul Burstow were quizzed on crucial issues such as the superbug and a ban on smoking in public places during their meeting at the King's Fund think-tank in London in front of doctors, policy-makers and patients.
Michael Summers, of the Patients' Association, asked if hospital acquired infection was the worst problem facing the NHS - and what should be done about it.
Hutton agreed that superbugs were one of the biggest issues for the NHS.
"It is the responsibility of ministers to follow the best scientific advice and we have done that. Every piece of scientific advice we have received on MRSA we have followed," he said.
The minister said MRSA bloodstream infection rates had started to come down, which he welcomed.
Hutton clashed with Lansley over whether wards should be closed to try to stem the spread of infections.
Lansley said there was evidence that ward managers were unable to close wards because they had to keep moving patients through the system to cut waiting lists.
Hutton said that, sometimes, moving patients around a hospital because a ward was closed was not necessarily the best way to stop the spread of infection.
Lansley accused the Government of not acting quickly enough on recommendations to tackle infections, such as making isolation easier and reducing bed occupancy.
"We have reached the point where from the point of view of patient confidence it is not simply that things have to be done, but the public has to see that the hospital is clean as well as minimising infection.
"That is about knowing who is in charge and the delivery of the highest standards of cleanliness and hygiene possible," Mr Lansley he said.
The plan, dubbed the "matron's budget" would put her in charge of deciding whether to close an infected ward.
It would also mean all wards having access to 24-hour cleaning and increased hygiene.
Howard, whose mother-in-law died from a hospital-acquired infection, launched his plan after visiting a hospital in Tooting, south London.
The Conservative leader told a London news conference: "Florence Nightingale once said that the very first requirement in hospital is that it should do the sick no harm.
"Under Mr Blair our hospitals are failing in that most basic duty. Let's be clear - MRSA is avoidable. We live in an advanced 21st century country with ever more sophisticated healthcare. Advances in medical technology have seen rare and congenital diseases tamed - eliminated one by one.
"But Mr Blair's obsession with targets has created a culture in which the superbug thrives."
Earlier, health minister John Hutton, shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley and Liberal Democrat health spokesman Paul Burstow were quizzed on crucial issues such as the superbug and a ban on smoking in public places during their meeting at the King's Fund think-tank in London in front of doctors, policy-makers and patients.
Michael Summers, of the Patients' Association, asked if hospital acquired infection was the worst problem facing the NHS - and what should be done about it.
Hutton agreed that superbugs were one of the biggest issues for the NHS.
"It is the responsibility of ministers to follow the best scientific advice and we have done that. Every piece of scientific advice we have received on MRSA we have followed," he said.
The minister said MRSA bloodstream infection rates had started to come down, which he welcomed.
Hutton clashed with Lansley over whether wards should be closed to try to stem the spread of infections.
Lansley said there was evidence that ward managers were unable to close wards because they had to keep moving patients through the system to cut waiting lists.
Hutton said that, sometimes, moving patients around a hospital because a ward was closed was not necessarily the best way to stop the spread of infection.
Lansley accused the Government of not acting quickly enough on recommendations to tackle infections, such as making isolation easier and reducing bed occupancy.
"We have reached the point where from the point of view of patient confidence it is not simply that things have to be done, but the public has to see that the hospital is clean as well as minimising infection.
"That is about knowing who is in charge and the delivery of the highest standards of cleanliness and hygiene possible," Mr Lansley he said.