The NHS will evolve into one of the best health services in the world after the Government’s controversial structural reforms, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has claimed.

Mr Lansley made the claim after the first Secretary of State’s Annual Report revealed waiting times are the lowest levels on record, MRSA outbreaks have fallen by a quarter and savings totalled £5.8bn.

Speaking in the House of Commons the Health Secretary said the health service was beginning a “new chapter” in its 64-year history.

He said performance results meant the NHS was entering a “new era based on openness and transparency, focused on what matters most to patients, on health outcomes, on care quality, on safety and on positive experience of care.”

“For the first time Parliament, patients and the public will know exactly how the NHS is performing, locally, nationally and by way of international comparison – a new era where patients are more in control, where clinicians lead services and where outcomes are amongst the best in the world,” said Mr Lansley.

However, Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham was unimpressed with Mr Lansley’s predictions and accused him of needlessly reorganising the NHS. He said: “Just when the NHS needed stability to focus all of its energy on the money, what did you do? You pulled the rug from underneath it with a reorganisation that no one wanted and this Prime Minister promised would never happen.”

The Labour MP told the Health Secretary he had wasted “not just one but two lost years” as he “obsessed on structures and inflicted an ideological experiment on the NHS”. Mr Burnham also claimed the NHS reforms had “led to a loss of financial grip at local level in the NHS”.

A host of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies will join forces alongside public research organisations and scientific experts to address the rising threat from antibiotic resistance.

Companies including GSK, AstraZeneca, Janssen and Sanofi will partner in a new £180 million research programme to boost the discovery and development of new antibiotics.

Patrick Vallance, President, Pharmaceuticals R&D at GSK said the agreement “signals a new model of collaboration” to develop treatments to tackle infections such as MRSA.

NewDrugs4BadBugs is supported by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) – who will jointly fund the first project with contributions from the pharma and biotech companies involved.

The objective of the collaboration is to improve the underlying scientific understanding of antibiotic resistance and design and implement clinical trials that see novel drug candidates clinically developed.

Currently, the WHO describes the pipeline of future antibiotics to counter emerging resistant bacteria as “virtually dry”.

Antibiotic resistance is increasingly becoming a worldwide health threat with new ‘superbugs’ evolving around the globe.

However, despite the urgent need for effective counteraction, research has diminished over the past 15 years with few companies remaining active in this area due to difficulties in finding new agents and regulatory complexities.

Martin Mackay, President, R&D, at AstraZeneca commented: “It is time to tackle this issue in a different way, sharing information and expertise among public and private partners – collaboration of this type is critical if we are to speed up the discovery of these medicines to improve patient health.”

Healthcare corporation 3M has lost its dispute with representatives of the British Government over the company’s failure to market a diagnostic for MRSA developed within the Ministry of Defence.

The complainants have won $1.3 million in damages, whereas they were seeking $40 million – an outcome claimed by both sides as a success.

The BacLite medical device, which uses photoluminescence to detect MRSA bacteria, was purchased by 3M in 2007 and then abandoned as having failed the necessary clinical trials to support its marketing in the EU and the US.

The MoD, its spin-out company Ploughshare Innovations and private equity firm the Porton Group together claimed that 3M had deliberately mismanaged the BacLite trials in order to protect its rival (and more expensive) Fastman device.

The High Court in London found that 3M was in material breach of its obligation “actively to market” BacLite in the EU, the US, Canada and Australia, including its obligation to seek regulatory approval in the US.

However, it did not find that 3M had “intended” a breach of contract and thereby conducted the clinical trials dishonestly.

3M has announced its intention to pursue charges in the US against the Porton Group for alleged attempts to “extort” an out-of-court settlement by threatening to use political influence.

While the arguments rage on, the question of whether BacLite has the potential to improve worldwide treatment of MRSA remains unresolved.

A new antimicrobial dressing suitable for severe and highly exudating wounds has been launched in the UK.

Hydrofera Blue (pictured) from Swindon-based company Synergy Health has been developed from blood purification technology.

The dressing is made from poly-vinyl alcohol (PVA) foam that can absorb up to 25 times its own mass in fluids, while binding and eliminating endotoxins.

The foam is combined with two active organic pigments, Gentian Violet and Methylene Blue, which have broad-spectrum bactericidal properties.

The unique construction of Hydrofera Blue means that no antimicrobial chemicals are deposited in the wound.

The combination of pigments was invented by Dr Edward Shanbrom, a pioneer in the use of natural products to cleanse blood.

Hydrofera Blue is effective against the most common pathogens that affect wounds in the UK, including E. coli and MRSA.

The sponge-like foam base of the dressing means that it is both comfortable and durable, and contours easily to the wound bed.

The product has been used extensively in the US since 2003, but until now has not been available to the UK healthcare market. Synergy Health is currently evaluating its use in acute and community settings.

Hydrofera Blue is available in a range of sizes for wounds varying from moderate to heavily exudating. Tunnel and ostomy versions are also available.

Rachel Downham, Woundcare Product Manager for Synergy Health, said: “Hydrofera Blue provides a real step change in advanced wound care management. It has the potential to increase the rate of wound healing and improve pain and odour control, offering big advantages from both a patient comfort and a cost reduction perspective.”

Synergy Health delivers a range of specialist outsourced services to clients in healthcare and health management.

A new website from UK-based infection control specialist Bioquell Healthcare aims to help hospital staff defeat healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs).

Focusing on ‘superbugs’ (drug-resistant germs), www.bugstoppers.co.uk adopts the style of the Crimestoppers campaign to profile the ‘bugs’ as individual villains.

Aimed at healthcare professionals and ancillary staff, the website provides accessible information on lethal pathogens such as C. difficile, MRSA and norovirus.

Each bug profile includes a microscopic image, a cartoon character image, a short description and some key facts, as well as a link to a detailed scientific profile of the pathogen on the Bioquell website.

The website is divided into three sections: ‘Bad bacteria’, ‘Villainous viruses’ and ‘Fearsome fungi’. Its first ‘Bug of the month’ is C. difficile, still a major threat to many hospital patients in the UK.

Less familiar bugs revealed on the website include anthrax and smallpox, as well as new resistant-gene superbugs such as NDM-1.

Bioquell has also produced a set of Bug Trump cards for use in infection control team training, as well as related posters and desktop tools.

James Salkeld, Head of Bioquell, said: “Our new website and supporting Bug Stoppers campaign has been developed with healthcare professionals to provide their colleagues with tools that can help to build a greater appreciation of the risks of HCAIs and improve practices that aid in its prevention.”

Based in Andover, Hampshire, Bioquell specialises in hydrogen peroxide vapour (HPV) bio-decontamination technology for healthcare environments.

Astellas has received EU approval for Vibativ, an injectable antibacterial drug to treat pneumonia caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

This rare approval for a new antibiotic answers the pressing need for drugs to treat resistant bacterial infections.

Rick E Winningham, CEO of US company Theravance, original owner of the rights of Vibativ, said: “We believe that Vibativ will become an important medicine addressing the urgent medical need for new antibiotics to treat Gram-positive infections caused by MRSA”.

The telavancin drug is indicated for the treatment of adults with hospital-acquired pneumonia, including ventilator-associated pneumonia.

The FDA previously approved Vibativ in the US for the treatment of complicated skin and skin structure infections (cSSI) caused by MRSA in 2009, but asked for more data before clearing its use to treat hospital-acquired pneumonia.

In a statement, Astellas said that plans to launch in Europe were “under review.”

UK surgical instrument firms that outsource their manufacturing to Pakistan are putting patients at risk of injury and infection, according to a BBC Panorama report.

Factories in Pakistan used by most UK surgical instrument suppliers have a significant rate of mechanical faults and biological contamination, the programme claimed.

Two-thirds of the world’s surgical instruments are manufactured in the city of Sialkot in northern Pakistan, where 70% of the UK’s registered surgical instrument manufacturers are based.

Panorama found evidence of small firms in Sialkot inspecting finished surgical instruments only with the naked eye, or outsourcing manufacture to backstreet workshops that lacked quality control.

Faults observed in the instruments included rough edges, steel burrs and corroded metals. These are a possible cause of MRSA infections, because fragments of steel can penetrate surgical gloves and damaged surfaces can trap biological materials.

Barts and the London NHS Trust, the only Trust to check every surgical instrument rigorously, rejects almost 20% of them as potentially unsafe, the programme claimed.

Tom Brophy, technologist at Barts, said: “On more than one occasion a supplier has rung me up and said that the instrument you rejected, I passed it onto another hospital and they accepted it. Of course they’re going to accept it, because they haven’t checked it.”

He also said that he had received used instruments, contaminated with blood, being sold as new.

MHRA commented that it had “no evidence that non-compliant instruments are being supplied to the NHS”.

The programme follows reports on child labour and dangerous working conditions in the manufacture of medical equipment in Pakistan.

A rapid diagnostic test for MRSA that US corporation 3M bought and then declined to sell is the subject of a current High Court lawsuit brought by the UK Ministry of Defence.

MoD-owned company Ploughshare Innovations and its financial partner, private equity firm Porton Capital, are suing 3M for up to £41m for failing to properly market the BacLite test.

BacLite used fluorescent light to detect the presence of MRSA. It enabled hospitals to identify MRSA infections within five hours, whereas other test procedures require 48 hours.

Discovered at the MoD’s Porton Down research centre, BacLite was approved by the UK health authorities and marketed to hospitals in 2005 by Acolyte, a company formed by the two partners.

In 2007, 3M bought Acolyte and the BacLite brand for £10.4m, with an earn-out agreement that meant the partners could have been entitled to up to £41m from sales of BacLite up to 2009. The agreement committed the American group to obtain FDA approval and market BacLite in Europe, North America and Australia.

However, in 2008 3M closed Acolyte and withdrew the brand, stating that it had no commercial potential. The viability of their clinical tests of the product is disputed by the lawsuit, which claims 3M allowed BacLite to fail commercially by mismanaging its application for FDA approval.

Commenting on the tests, Ploughshare CEO Pete Hotten said: “3M Corporation failed to get an excellent diagnostic technology into the market, through what 3M’s own officials describe as avoidable mistakes.”

Former Defence Minister Tom Watson MP commented: "This is clearly a matter of public interest, both in terms of public health and also in terms of the potential earnings lost to the UK taxpayer. The British public has a right to know why such an important, potentially life-saving UK product became obsolete as a result of 3M's failure to re-do those vital FDA trials.”

3M has issued a public statement justifying its actions. “A hallmark of 3M is its unwavering commitment to providing effective and reliable products,” said the company’s legal representative, William A. Brewer III. “In the view of the company, BacLite was not commercially viable and it failed to meet certain standards of the marketplace.

“The profit motives of the Porton Group and its publicity campaign will have no bearing on our client’s position in the current litigation.”

Ploughshare Innovations manages the commercial licensing to industry of intellectual property developed within the Ministry of Defence. Porton Capital is a private equity firm that commercialises technology in partnership with the British Government.