POS-2026-3012 : Surgical site infection monitoring in English routinely collected primary and secondary care data

Sometimes after having surgery, the wound can get infected. This is called a Surgical Site Infection (SSI). Hospitals take careful steps to avoid SSIs, including using antiseptics and antibiotics. However not all SSIs can be prevented, and when an infection happens patients can need more time in hospital, antibiotics and even further surgery.

In order to monitor when and where SSIs occur, to ensure a high quality service is provided across the whole NHS, there is a national Surgical Site Infection Surveillance Service (SSISS). This monitors how many people are having surgery and how many of them get infections. At the moment, trained hospital staff have to collect this information, which can take their time away from caring for patients. Many hospitals only follow up some patients, not all, and many types of surgery are not included at all.

We are aiming to create a report on SSIs, using data from GP practices and hospitals that is already collected to see if this approach could help monitor SSIs. We will look at infections occurring in hospital and those treated by GPs. We will look at the variation between geographic areas and patient factors such as age and existing health conditions. We want to find ways to look at how often infections happen after many more types of surgery, all the time, without NHS staff having to collect this data. This will help us find ways to reduce variation and reduce the risk of wound infections, improving patients’ experience and reducing antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance.