Clean hands save lives

5th October 2009

Washing and cleaning our hands is something that we do many times a day, but for Healthcare workers, it can save lives.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), good hand hygiene is the most simple and effective way of avoiding infections. Bay of Plenty District Health Board staff are set to be trained on a new approach to hand hygiene as part of a national project.

Tauranga Hospital infection control coordinator Robyn Boyne says the emphasis of this programme is on ‘when’ rather than ‘how’ staff should clean their hands.

“The WHO has identified five ‘moments’ when healthcare staff should clean or wash their hands - before patient contact, before a procedure, after a procedure or body fluid exposure risk, after patient contact and after contact with patient surroundings,” says Robyn. “Whilst this might sound simple and obvious, we need to make sure it’s happening 100 per cent of the time. The use of alcohol gel (available in every room) makes cleaning hands easy, quick and effective.”

Robyn says that this project is about making the five moments for hand hygiene part of the everyday routine of all healthcare workers.

“Many years ago, it wasn’t standard practice to wear gloves, but now we wouldn’t dream of not using them as part of our routine. This is the same thing.”

Research suggests that 5-10 per cent of patients develop an infection in hospital that they didn’t come in with, and there is overwhelming evidence that cleaning and washing hands is the most effective way of preventing infections from spreading.

“We’d like to remind visitors to hospital that they should wash their hands, or use the alcohol hand gel (sterigel), before visiting a patient and again when they leave. People should also stay away from visiting people in hospital if they are sick, to prevent spreading germs,” says Robyn.

ENDS

© Scoop Media