Clean hands and stop disease

He said: “Good hand hygiene is central to the reduction in infection rates.

“It still remains the simplest, most effective method of preventing health care associated infections and maintaining general health and well-being.

“Staff, patients, visitors and the public all have a role to play in preventing the spread of infection in healthcare settings and within their communities. Please promote the WHO ‘Safe Care Clean Hands’ initiative in all aspects of your daily life”.

He made the comments as the Western Trust weighed in behind the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global campaign to improve and sustain excellent levels of hand hygiene.

Preventing infections and reducing an avoidable burden on health systems is still critical around the world today and is part of making sure every health-care setting is safe for treating every single patient. The primary focus of this year’s campaign is to improve hand hygiene practices in all surgical services through the continuum of care, from surgical wards to operating theatres and outpatient surgical services.

WHO has produced a new poster campaign for staff working in surgical wards to remind them of the ‘Five Moments’ when hand hygiene must be carried out and to highlight the times on the patient’s journey through surgery when they are most at risk of infection. The Infection, Prevention and Control Team in the Western Trust will raise awareness of the new resource with staff in all the surgical wards.