How we are preventing and controlling infection

Infection, Prevention and Control

We aim to minimise the risk of patients, visitors and staff being affected by all healthcare-associated infections – or by infections that are present in the communities we serve.

We have a dedicated and committed Infection Control Team working across the trust.

Measures we take

We have a programme of infection control training for our staff. Our infection control teams and senior nurses carry out regular audits to check staff are following proper hand hygiene procedures.

Infection prevention and control has a very high profile in our hospitals and community services. We have designed our own publicity posters featuring our own staff to encourage colleagues, patients and visitors to follow infection control rules. We are also active members of the National Patient Safety Agency’s ‘cleanyourhands’ campaign.

Some infections place particular burdens on our cleaning teams. That is why we have employed extra cleaners specifically to support our infection prevention and control programme.

Infections that are resistant to antibiotics may be caused by our use of these antibiotics to treat patients. This is because when antibiotics are used to prevent or treat infections related to a particular illness or surgical procedure, they can also reduce the body’s defences against other bacteria. This increases the opportunity for some drug-resistant bugs, that might otherwise do no harm, to grow and make patients ill.

That is why we have introduced tight controls on the use of these antibiotics to minimise the chance that they put patients at risk.

We recognise that patients and visitors are anxious about infections. That is why we expect our staff to be happy to be challenged on infection control matters. For example, if you are not sure whether a member of staff has cleaned their hands, please ask them.

We are working with the Health Protection Agency and the Department of Health MRSA performance taskforce to make sure we do everything we can to prevent and control infections.

We are also working in partnership with infection control colleagues in primary care and other community organisations to control infections that are brought into the hospital – and to stop them causing a risk when patients are discharged and go home or to other health or social accommodation in the community.

These are just some of the many measures we are taking to prevent and control infection.

Useful links

Health Protection Agency – The Health Protection Agency (HPA) is an independent body that protects the health and well-being of the population.