FOI release

Surgical Site Infections

Case reference FOI2026/01953

Received 22 May 2026

Published 8 July 2026

Request

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Please could you provide the information regarding the questions about surgical site infection below: 1. Prior to surgery, what does your hospital do to reduce the possibility of surgical site infections, e.g., cleansing the body with chlorhexidine wipes, do they use nasal decolonisation, and if not, what do they use to decolonise the nose? (Between the years 2023-2026) Simon Godley et al, please answer Q2 2. What is the rate of surgical site infections in major operations? (Between the years 2023-2026) If any part of this request exceeds the cost limit under the Act, I would be grateful if you could advise how the request may be refined in order to remain within the allowable limits. If the information requested is held by another public authority, please advise or transfer the request where appropriate under Section 44 of the Act.

Response

1. Prior to surgery, what does your hospital do to reduce the possibility of surgical site infections, e.g., cleansing the body with chlorhexidine wipes, do they use nasal decolonisation, and if not, what do they use to decolonise the nose? (Between the years 2023-2026)
Prior to surgery, we offer decolonisation to all patients (adults and children over the age of 1 year) undergoing high risk surgery and to patients with a planned procedure involving device implantation. 

Nasal product:

First line: Mupirocin (2% w/w mupirocin free acid) nasal ointment e.g. Bactroban® nasal ointment 2%

Alternative if allergic to mupirocin or known resistance to mupirocin: Naseptin® nasal cream in 15g tube (Chlorhexidine dihydrochloride 0.1% w/w and neomycin sulphate 0.5% w/w)

Skin cleanser:

First line: Chlorhexidine 4% wash

Alternative if hypersensitivity reaction to chlorhexidine, peanuts or soya: Octenisan® (octenidine hydrochloride) wash lotion

2. What is the rate of surgical site infections in major operations? (Between the years 2023-2026)

We do not hold a pooled data set for SSI rates and unclear what is meant by term major operations.

 

The only SSI rates reported into us if appropriate are below:

 

There is some publicly available data for specific Orthopaedic operations data up to March 2025. Previous years are found below in IPC annual reports found publicly also.

SSI-surveillance-NHS-trust-tables-April-2023-to-March-2025_v1.0__1_.ods

 

SSI rates reported to us are found publicly in our Infection Prevention and Control Annual Report 2023-24 Page 48 which includes Cardiac surgery and Trauma and Orthopaedic SSI rates. Infection Prevention and Control Annual Report 2024-25 page 48 as above. 2025-26 is due to be published in September 2026.

Documents

There are no documents for this release.

This is Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.

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