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INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL
Embracingtechnology to save lives
In a recent Westminster debate, ‘Raising standards of infection prevention and control in the NHS’, Andrea Jenkyns, MP for Morley and Outwood, raised her concerns regarding hand hygiene and infection prevention, and the current method of direct observation to measure hand hygiene compliance. Andrea shares her story and the role that electronic monitoring systems need to play in order to make a positive change for the future.
A Westminster debate addressed the use of electronic monitoring systems to measure hand hygiene compliance and reduce infection rates. All parties present addressed the flaws of direct observation and the impact that capturing inaccurate hand hygiene data has on patients and the NHS. The debate also focused on how technology can improve hand hygiene compliance and what actions need to be taken to reduce costs and increase patient safety within the NHS.
In 2011, my father had been diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. The consultant advised that as we had caught it early, he could expect to live another 10 years after a lung operation.
He was admitted to hospital for a routine procedure in July 2011 to drain fluid from his lungs. A group of trainee doctors practiced on him for two and a half hours. This was how he caught MRSA and as a result, he passed away a few months later. The quality of care my dad received was
poor. We later found out that his room was located adjacent to the ward where patients were treated for MRSA, his door was always open, the room where they carried out the procedure was not sterile, and the cleaners kept their mops, buckets and cleaning products in there.
I recall there was one particular nurse who put antibiotic cream in my dad’s nose. She walked in, didn’t wash her hands, put the cream up his nose and walked out again without washing her hands. I spoke with the head nurse about my concerns, but she just looked at me blankly and walked away. This was a brand-new hospital, but what I kept noticing was that people did not wash their hands before and after their consultations with patients.
During my father’s last months in hospital, I became acutely aware of a lack of awareness around hand hygiene from the medical staff. Since then, I have vowed to do everything I can to raise awareness around the critical importance of hand hygiene in keeping patients safe.
Campaigning to improve hand hygiene
Upon being elected as a Member of Parliament in 2015, I launched the Handz campaign. Together with like-minded supporters – from fellow politicians to existing charities such as MRSA Action UK, to hand hygiene product specialists such as Deb Group – we strived to educate people, particularly the younger generation, on the importance of hand hygiene, with the view to establishing lifelong habits
During my father’s last months inhospital, I became acutely aware of a lack of awareness around hand hygiene from the medical staff.
SEPTEMBER 2018
of good handwashing practices. The campaign focused on encouraging
every MP in the United Kingdom to take the lead on this global issue by engaging with their local primary schools to spread the message. The Handz campaign then branched out into local care settings and hospitals with the help of politicians at all levels.
While I have played a small part, I have been hugely impressed with the work that the, then, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Jeremy Hunt MP, has done on this issue in public and behind the scenes. Professor Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer for England, is also an inspiration, showing a rare energy and passion into fighting and highlighting antimicrobial resistance. As part of our efforts to continually drive awareness, we must look for new ways of gathering data, and encourage technological support that can be utilised to strengthen the message further, and, ultimately, provide the much-needed evidence to those in charge of our NHS premises. The means to report on hand hygiene compliance in the NHS is out there. There are technical solutions that could revolutionise hand hygiene protocol and save thousands of lives each year and prevent the tragic impact these needless deaths have on so many families across the UK. The difference that we can make is incalculable. In September 2016, the Government has acknowledged the need for action and published its response to the Independent Review on Antimicrobial resistance. It set out
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