Dr Natasha Ratnaraja, Joint Medical Microbiology and Medical Virology Speciality Advisory Committee Chair said:
`This report clearly demonstrates that infection plays a major part in the health of our nation. Infection management is the role of every person - from patients to government organisations, public health, primary care, acute and specialised services. We recognise that infection is managed by a diverse community of specialists, with the need for a system-wide approach to combating infections clearly highlighted in this report. The many aspects influencing the successful management of infections, including prevention through better hygiene, vaccination, accurate, high quality and timely diagnostics, diagnostic and antimicrobial stewardship and patient-based treatment, require a co-ordinated response from everyone involved in and associated with the infection specialty.
‘The SARS-Cov2 pandemic clearly highlighted how the infection workforce is multi-professional and multidisciplinary by design. This includes the “traditional” infection specialists (such as medical microbiology, medical virology, infectious diseases, tropical medicine, infection prevention and control, clinical scientists, laboratory-based specialists, immunologists, public health and pharmacists) but also other allied health professionals such as emergency, acute and respiratory medicine. The third sector also play an important role in helping to reach and treat underserved populations.
‘It is this multisystem approach that not only serves the patient with an acute or chronic infection, but helps to prevent infection through driving research, innovation and collaboration in vaccines, diagnostics and antimicrobials.
‘Infection specialists play a vital role in pandemic preparedness, again utilising a multi-professional, multidisciplinary approach to optimise management. There is a need to ensure that every clinician within all healthcare settings in England and the UK has the skills to diagnose and manage infection effectively and appropriately, to optimise outcomes for patients regardless of age, demographic and geographical location. It is the infection specialist who delivers this training.
‘It is this collaborative working that ensures that patients with infections can have the best possible outcome. We recognise the need for an alliance of allied infection specialities to provide a comprehensive and consistent approach to optimise safe patient care, and the need for a robust workforce to achieve this.
‘We welcome the opportunity to undertake a more in-depth review of this report, and work with our allied infection specialities and organisations to develop a comprehensive plan to achieve the report’s aims.’
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