Camillus Glynn (Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Seanad Éireann" and substitute the following:

"welcomes the Government's commitment to promoting patient safety and high-quality health services and in particular to the setting up of the commission on patient safety and quality assurance;

supports the objective of the commission to develop clear and practical recommendations to ensure that quality and safety of care for patients is paramount within the health care system;

welcomes the appointment of an assistant national director of health protection as the lead person nationally for MRSA in the HSE supported by senior representatives of the National Hospitals Office, PCCC and Risk Management as well as senior clinicians who have set a number of targeted-national initiatives to reduce the prevalence and impact of HCAIs;

welcomes the recruitment of key staff including 20 infection control nurses, 20 antibiotic liaison pharmacists and ten surveillance scientists in the coming months as part of a national strategy on HCAIs;

acknowledges the upcoming television and radio campaigns to increase awareness of the importance of hand hygiene among hospital staff, visitors and patients;

welcomes the continued education and training of health care workers on HCAIs;

recognises the problems associated with large influxes of visitors as a complicating factor in maintaining hospital hygiene and controlling HCAIs and supports the HSE in its efforts to enforce its policy on visiting;

supports the important role of the Irish Health Services Accreditation Board and its work in applying accreditation standards to ensure safety and continuous quality improvement;

acknowledges that the HSE has put in place management structures at both corporate and hospital level with responsibility for ensuring quality and minimising risk;

acknowledges that hospital cleanliness is vital in fighting the spread of HCAIs;

notes the results of the second hygiene audit which showed significant improvement on the first hygiene audit in almost every hospital;

notes that the Irish Health Services Accreditation Board, IHSAB, is due to carry out a third hygiene audit this year;

welcomes the development by the IHSAB of the hygiene services assessment scheme at the request of the Department of Health and Children. This scheme is a set of standards which the hospitals assess themselves against;

welcomes the Bill to establish an independent Health Information and Quality Authority;

acknowledges the entitlement of all patients to be informed in a sensitive manner of any diagnosis of MRSA;

welcomes the Health Research Board's study on health care acquired infection. The outcome of this research will be a valuable tool in progressing the fight against health care acquired infections at both strategic and operational level; and

notes the request of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children regarding the updating of the Health Act 1947, which is being considered in the context of the HSE implementing an accompanying reporting system."

I welcome the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, to the House. The words "methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus" do not seem to register with many people, but the abbreviation "MRSA" strikes fear into the heart of almost everyone. Difficulties pertaining to MRSA in society and our hospitals are nothing new. Back in 1995 or 1996, the then Minister for Health and Children had to answer questions on the surveillance of these types of infection.