Infection prevention performance

We have carried out a range of proactive measures to prevent healthcare-associated infection. These measures include:

• adopting the National Patient Safety Agency 'Clean your Hands' campaign to improve hand hygiene practice;
• installing wall-mounted alcohol hand gels dispensers on all wards across the Trust for use by staff, patients and visitors;
• providing training in infection control and hand hygiene at induction for all new staff, and ensuring staff attend annual refresher training on infection control and hand hygiene;
• introducing a visitors' code, to ensure there is enough time for wards to be cleaned thoroughly, and to help us with infection control;
• screening all inpatients for MRSA, including emergency admissions.

Find out more including our latest figures for infections such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile in our Preventing infection| section.

Performance facts for 2009/10

• The Trust went 155 days without a single report of MRSA and the total number of cases dropped from 27 to just seven. Over 99% of our patients were screened for MRSA before admission and any who missed out were investigated as part of our ongoing drive to reduce infection rates.
• We also met our target for preventing Clostridium difficile infections, reducing the number of cases by 51%, from 289 to 143.
• The Trust was one of eight ‘show case hospitals’ across England taking part in a national NHS project to test new products and technologies designed to minimise the risk of infections. We were also recognised by one of the UK’s top medical organisations for leading the way in using antibiotics in the fight against infection.
• The British Medical Association praised the development of clear and simple antimicrobial prescribing guidelines for staff. Careful and restricted prescribing plays a key part in preventing bugs’ resistance to treatment and simple measures have ensured medication is only given in the correct circumstances.