Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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225. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 147 of 17 October 2018, the assurance he has received in regard to ULHG having measures in place to appropriately support and manage patient care needs in line with national and international best practice; if his attention has been drawn to the conclusion of the UHL report on the death of patients in whom CPE had been detected, which states that more preventable deaths will occur at UHL unless increased infection prevention and control staff are employed and better infrastructure created to combat the spread of CPE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44049/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The internal review conclusion notes that the new cohort ward put in place by University Hospital Limerick has helped reduce transmission of CPE. The report also makes recommendations as to molecular diagnostic timeliness, infection prevention and control staffing and infrastructure.

Subsequent to the internal review, ULHG commissioned an external review by an independent expert who concluded that the microbiological investigations and infection control interventions used were appropriate and in line with guidelines. The external review concluded that robust screening protocols are in place and that they are important in containing CPE.

I have been assured that ULHG have measures in place, including those for outbreak control, to appropriately support and manage patients care needs in line with national and international best practice.

In 2018, UHL was allocated resourcing for additional infection prevention and control capacity. In addition, the HSE National Programme for Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance is currently considering infrastructure requirements to support infection prevention and control nationally.

Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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226. To ask the Minister for Health the reason over 120 known KPC-CPE positive patients were excluded from the review into CPE deaths in UHL in view of the fact that many in the exclusion category were known to be KPC-CPE positive and died during the period that the review covered. [44050/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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“Report on the death of patients in whom CPE had been detected” was published on 9 October by the HSE and ULHG. It detailed the review of all deaths in patients in whom CPE had been detected between February 2009 and May 2017.  

The report notes that 195 patients had been identified as CPE positive during this time period. The report reviewed 74 of these patients. This is the group of patients identified as deceased and therefore appropriate to include per the scope of the review.