Two in three healthcare professionals believe that there is still a war against infection in UK hospitals, with catheter-related blood stream infections (CRBSI) considered a major issue by three quarters (74%) of professionals, according to a survey of UK nurses and anaesthetists.
The survey comes after NICE reported that 300,000 patients per year contract healthcare-acquired infections, with CRBSI's accounting for nearly one in five infections. CRBSIs are serious, potentially life-threatening infections that cost the average UK hospital between GBP4,000 and GBP10,000 each episode. Of the 80% of respondents who are aware of CRBSIs, 73% believe them to be preventable. Over two thirds of all nurses and anaesthetists say that simple interventions to prevent CRBSIs would lead to significant NHS savings.
Despite this, over a third of respondents in the survey were either unaware of or knew nothing about CRBSIs and only 15% were aware that infection is mostly caused by the patient's own skin. Awareness was particularly low among nurses, with nearly one in five having no awareness of CRBSIs and only 8% correctly citing the patient's own skin as the major cause.
"There is a clear need for better awareness and understanding of CRBSIs and how to prevent them," said Prof Robert Masterton, director of the institute of healthcare associated infection, University of the West of Scotland, "Nurses, in particular, have a key role to play at the frontline of care in preventing the spread of infection."
The survey was commissioned by Ethicon, a Johnson & Johnson company that has developed Biopatch – an antimicrobial dressing that reduces CRBSIs by gradually releasing Chlorhexidine Gluconate over a seven-day period.
