Reducing HCAIs 2011:Maintaining Patient Safety: Breaking the Cycle of Infection

Conference Speakers

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• Edwina Currie

  PatronMRSA Action UK

  Edwina Currie was a Birmingham City Councillor (1975-86) and Chairman of the Central Birmingham Health Authority and served as MP for South Derbyshire from 1983 to 1997.

  From 1985-86, Edwina was PPS (aide) to the Secretary of State for Education and Science, Sir Keith Joseph; from 1986-88 she was a government Minister at the Department of Health and Social Security (later the Department of Health) under Margaret Thatcher. She resigned after warning about food safety in eggs. John Major invited her to rejoin the government in 1992 but she declined. She was the lead proposer of legislation to give equal rights to gay men, calling a debate in February 1994 (the first in the House of Commons in 25 years). On that occasion the House voted to reduce the age of consent for gays in Britain, which had been 21, to 18.

  Other campaigns included support for our military personnel who returned from the first Gulf War in Iraq in 1991 suffering from Gulf War Syndrome. She set up a multi-agency team with the Royal British Legion and successfully pressed Ministers to accept responsibility and compensate the victims and their families.

  During the 1990s she championed the cause of people with learning disabilities who had been abused, following a famous case in her constituency which resulted in the trial and imprisonment of a care worker. To help witnesses and victims she set up a registered charity, VOICE, with funding from the Department of Health and the Home Office.

  Much of her time is devoted to non-partisan community work with the charity The Patients Association and as Patron of MRSA Action (UK). Both groups campaign on behalf of patients for cleaner hospitals and how to avoid epidemics of "superbugs" such as MRSA and clostridium difficile. She is also Patron of her local women`s aid refuge.

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