The Sunday Post, above today makes much, much too much, of one case of sepsis where diagnosis was later than it might have been. What does it tel us about the wider situation, the ‘news’ dare I say it?

Nothing.

There is, in the Post, of course, no fuller explanation of the situation with regard to sepsis, in Scotland, just the one wee story. Here it is:

How under Scottish Labour, hospitals were ‘death traps’ of hospital acquired infections and how Nicola Sturgeon sorted it

The prevalence of HAI was 4.9%, 2.5%, 6.1% and 1.2% in acute, non-acute, paediatric and independent hospitals respectively [in Scotland in 2006]. https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(12)00277-0/abstract

The most recent comprehensive data on hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) in Scotland comes from a 2021 study led by Glasgow Caledonian University, commissioned by the Scottish Government. This study, published in the Journal of Hospital Infection, found that approximately 1% of hospital patients in Scotland develop HAIs annually, equating to about 7,500 patients each year. This incidence rate is notably lower than previous UK estimates (7.8%) and recent European figures (3%). https://www.scotpho.org.uk/health-conditions/infections/data/healthcare-associated-infections/

So, hospital acquired infections under the SNP are between a fifth and a half of the level in 2006, under Labour, an eighth of the level in England and a third of the level in Europe.

Why, so good?

 In Scotland, the decision was taken in 2008, against the background of major problems in British hospitals with infections resistant to treatment. The Scottish ministry of health [Health Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon] banned any further contracting-out of these services, so that when existing contracts expire all work returns and remains in-house. It also financed the employment of 600 extra cleaners to raise standards of cleanliness.https://www.epsu.org/article/uk-hospital-cleaning-brought-house-scotland-wales-n-ireland

New research shows that NHS hospitals that employ private cleaners are associated with a higher incidence of MRSA, a ‘superbug’ that causes life-threatening infection and has previously been linked with a lack of cleanliness…on average, the incidence of MRSA infection between 2005 and 2009 was 2.28 in every 100,000 bed days in trusts that outsourced their cleaning, compared with 1.46 bed days in trusts that used in-house cleaners –.a difference of almost 50 per cent. 

The research was conducted by the University of Oxford, with the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. 

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2016-12-21-nhs-hospitals-outsource-cleaning-%E2%80%98linked-higher-rates-mrsa%E2%80%99