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Southern DHB supporting World Hand Hygiene Day

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Southern DHB will be supporting World Hand Hygiene day on Saturday (5 May 2018).

This year, the global theme for World Hand Hygiene Day is 'It's in your hands - prevent sepsis in health care.'

Sepsis, also known as blood poisoning, is the reaction to an infection in which the body attacks its own organs and tissues.  It is estimated to affect more than 30 million patients every year worldwide. It is a potentially life-threatening condition however, it can be easily treated if caught early.


Southern DHB is encouraging all its healthcare workers to use World Hand Hygiene Day as an opportunity to refresh their hand hygiene knowledge and re-pledge to make it a priority.

 “This day reminds us that hand hygiene is important today, and every day. It is a vital part of our patient care. We need to make sure that patients don’t develop sepsis in the first place, and hand hygiene and infection prevention and control (IPC) has a crucial part to play in the prevention of health care-associated infections,” says Southern DHB Infection, Prevention and Control Charge Nurse Manager, Jo Stodart.

The DHB will be supporting the campaign with displays reminding staff and patients about the importance of following the ‘5 moments of hand hygiene’ to prevent sepsis; messages will be posted on the staff intranet; and IPC staff will be reminding staff and patients about the importance of hand hygiene in preventing infections.

There are also hand hygiene stations at the entrances to wards and clinics, and in public areas which patients, visitors and staff are encouraged to use.

All healthcare workers are being asked to ‘take 5 moments to clean their hands to prevent sepsis in health care.’ The simple World Health Organisation’s 5 moments for hand hygiene approach requires hand hygiene to be completed at the following times, irrespective of whether or not gloves are used:

• Before patient contact
• Before a procedure
• After a procedure or body fluid exposure risk
• After patient contact
• After contact with patient surroundings

Southern DHB Quality and Risk Manager, Tina Gilbertson says that infection prevention is in everyone’s interest. “Our staff know the 5 moments of hand hygiene but we also encourage patients to ask staff to clean their hands if they notice a lapse.

“Southern DHB has maintained the national hand hygiene target since 2014 and the goal is to continue to embed good hand hygiene practice and to support sustained increases in compliance in the future.”

*Photo of the IPC team at Dunedin Hospital