UK hospitals face multimillion pound fines

Hospitals throughout the UK could be charged millions of pounds even if they manage to bring Clostridium difficile infection rates down, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has claimed.

According to the publication, hospitals that exceed government infection reduction targets still have a 50 per cent chance of being fined over a two-year period, rising to 95 per cent over three years.

Researchers from Cambridge, London and Oxford have commented on a "perverse" incentive scheme brought into play to encourage trusts to reduce c difficile infection rates.

While there are benefits to doing so, there are also heavy punitive fines for those trusts which exceed their reduction quota, even by a single case.

"The current system, introduced as part of the 2008 National Health Service contract for acute services, may de-incentivise trusts from performing well and encourage hospitals to automatically reserve funds to pay penalties," the BMJ warned.

Such news may be of interest to those who are considering taking out private health insurance.

The group warned that the penalties for a ten per cent reduction are not suitable for trusts of varying sizes with differing case loads.

According to the Department of Health, c difficile was first identified as the cause of diarrhoea and colitis in the early 1970s. 

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