Surgical site infection
Background
Surgical site infection (SSI) can cause serious complications following surgery. As a result, the Scottish SSI surveillance programme was established in 2002 to estimate the risk of infection after specific procedures. Currently four surgical procedures are mandatory within SSI surveillance, these are:
- hip arthroplasty
- caesarean sections
- large bowel
- vascular procedures
As part of the programme we carry out analysis of the data and report trends in SSI for the mandatory procedures throughout Scotland, and work with NHS boards to reduce it. SSI surveillance for large bowel and vascular procedures only started in April 2017, so aren't currently included within the quarterly epidemiological commentary. To ensure sturdy data collection prior to the publication of the commentary we're working with NHS boards.
Publications
Annual reports
Download our Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare-Associated Infections (ARHAI) annual reports below:
- Healthcare Associated Infection Annual Report 2018
- Healthcare Associated Infection Annual Report 2017
- Healthcare Associated Infection Annual Report 2016
Compendium of Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI)
The HAI Compendium contains links to:
- current national policy and guidance on HAI
- antimicrobial prescribing and resistance
- decontamination
- other related topics
Data and surveillance
Quarterly epidemiological data commentaries
The commentaries contain quarterly epidemiological data by NHS board and nationally for Scotland jointly for:
- Clostridioides difficile infection
- Escherichia coli bacteraemia
- Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia
- meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
- meticillin susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA)
- surgical site infection
Read the latest commentary on quarterly epidemiological data in Scotland:
Surveillance protocol
Educational resources
In collaboration with NHS Education for Scotland (NES) we’ve developed a range of educational resources to improve practice in diagnosis and reporting of SSI and understand the health implications for the patient.