In this podcast, Phil and Brett speak with Dr Lyn-Li Lim from VICNISS (Victorian Healthcare Associated Infection Surveillance System)in Australia. Dr Lim and colleagues recently explored the infection prevention and control resourcing levels in 113 facilities, including FTE per 100 beds. This podcast explores the differences in resourcing for different categories of hospitals.

A link to the publication is here. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019665532500570X

In this episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Sarah Fieldhouse, Associate Professor of Forensic Science and Dr Emmanuel Babafemi, Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences both of the University of Staffordshire, UK. We discuss a recent paper looking at hospital cleanliness. Using forensic light, the study uncovered invisible contamination on surfaces that looked clean to the naked eye. We discuss what fluorescence reveals, what ATP misses, and how this approach could reshape environmental monitoring in healthcare.

The open access paper is available here: Fieldhouse S, Bastaki BB, Ledgerton A, Clarke P, Lewis T. Assessing the effectiveness of hospital cleaning using fluorescence: a proof-of-concept study and comparison with ATP testing. J Hosp Infect 2025;166:38-45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2025.08.008.

https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0195-6701%2825%2900267-1

In this episode, Martin talks to Dr Diane Ashiru-Oredope and colleagues at the UK Health Security Agency about the 2025 ESPAUR report, focusing on what the latest data mean for clinicians, infection prevention teams, and health system leaders. We explore what the latest data reveal about antimicrobial resistance and prescribing trends in England, including changes in resistance patterns among major bacterial pathogens and what this means for patient safety and clinical outcomes.

We discuss what’s improving, where challenges remain, and how infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship teams can use national surveillance data to drive meaningful local action.

You can download the report in it's entirety here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6936ac34b612700b2cb73607/ESPAUR-report-2024-to-2025.pdf

There is also a supplement and summary in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy which can be accessed here: https://academic.oup.com/jacamr/issue/8/Supplement_2

The TARGET antibiotics toolkit hub is abailable here: https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/view.php?id=553

e-Bug is available here: https://www.e-bug.eu/