Hand Hygiene
Hand hygiene is a key element in the fight against HAIs, and NHS Boards now routinely provide alcohol hand rubs near every acute front line bed. The national hand hygiene advertising campaign "Germs - Wash Your Hands of Them" was launched in January 2007, as well as the introduction of a Hand Hygiene Pack for schools and nurseries aimed at instilling good hand hygiene practice at a young age.
The campaign in the NHS continues to heighten awareness among NHS staff, patients and visitors and is supported by Local Health Board Co-ordinators who play a key role in implementing and monitoring hand hygiene standards at Health Board level. Audits of hand hygiene compliance are undertaken amongst healthcare workers and the latest audit reveals that staff of NHS boards have improved from 68% compliance from the first audit in February 2007 to 87% for the third audit undertaken in February 2008. The HAI Task Force will fund Local Health Board Co-ordinators for at least another two years and provided funding to ensure that Infection Control Managers could become permanent staff from April 2008.
Hand hygiene will remain as a central theme of the Task Force's new Delivery Plan. Future work will, however, move away from media advertising and veer towards promoting hand hygiene standards within the healthcare setting, the aim being to: a) increase hand hygiene compliance by staff of NHS Boards so all staff meet the Scottish Government's target of achieving at least 90% hand hygiene compliance by November 2008; and b) make patients and visitors more aware of the importance of washing their hands whilst in hospital.