Infection prevention, it's everyone's responsibility
"We ask visitors to use the alcohol based hand gel. This can be found at the entrance to all wards and departments along with instructions on how to apply it.. It should be applied every time you enter and leave By making sure that everyone adheres to these procedures, we can ensure we maintain our excellent standards and reduce the risk of cross-infection."
Mandy Bailey
Chief Nurse
UHSM asks visitors to:- Not come to hospital to visit a patient if you have been unwell with vomiting/diarrhoea or flu like symptoms in the last 48 hrs
- Decontaminate your hands with the alcohol based hand gel everytime you enter or leave a ward
- Not eat at the bedside whilst visiting patients
- Not sit on patients' beds
Helping reduce the risk of infection in the hospital environment is everyone's responsibility. Germs can be brought into wards and units by anyone and they can be spread to other people. UHSM takes the prevention and control of infection very seriously and it has a dedicated infection prevention team, which is taking a proactive approach to prevent the micro-organisms that cause infections becoming established in the hospital.
The team works closely with staff to help advise where and how people with specific infections should be cared for, depending on the type of germ or infection concerned. All UHSM staff receive regular Infection prevention training and are kept up-to-date with how to protect the people who use our services, visitors and themselves.
Our staff take infections seriously and are committed to keeping our service users as safe and healthy as possible. We understand that patients are concerned about hospital acquired infections such as MRSA and Clostrdium difficile (C.diff) when they are admitted. .
UHSM has a large-scale campaign raising the awareness of Infection Prevention. Posters are placed across the hospital (as pictured above) featuring members of staff from surgeons to management to cleaners, communicating positive messages about good practice at UHSM and stressing the importance of good practice.
The posters accompany an ongoing staff campaign, which involves the use of screensavers and pop-up messages on staff computers which refresh on a daily basis. These include an MRSA bacteraemia and Clostridium difficile case count, and regularly updated messages about the fact that infection prevention is everyone's responsibility.
UHSM also recently filmed its third annual video, which with the help of staff performances helps to promote the message about reducing Infections - coverage of all three events to date can be viewed here.