Our Infection Prevention and Control team is led by Dr Alastair Gascoigne, the Director of Infection Prevention and Control (DIPC). Dr Gascoigne reports directly to our management board - an indication of how seriously we take the issue of cleanliness and safety in your hospitals. This dedicated, high-level Infection Preventation and Control team enables us to respond to infection issues quickly and effectively, and provides a clear focal point for infection control strategy across the Trust.

Our Infection Prevention and Control procedures are woven into every aspect and every area of our work. The Infection Prevention and Control team works alongside colleagues from all areas and at all levels of the Trust. In particularly, it is closely involved with Patient Services, Estates and Hotel Services and in those departments which have the highest infection risk. It also has a vital on-going input into our Transforming Newcastle Hospitals investment programme, ensuring that the design, function and fabric of the new buildings we are investing in match with our strategies for effective infection prevention and control.

The fight against infection never stops.  We assess our Infection Prevention and Control policies and our performance on an on-going basis, to ensure that we are providing the highest levels of cleanliness, hygiene and safety for our patients, visitors and staff.  We're continually investing in our resources too, to make sure we have the most modern tools to provide the cleanest, safest healthcare services that we can.

All our experience and best practice advice on infection prevention and control is brought together in a web-based database, so that every decision we take with regard to infection prevention and control is based on the most accurate and up-to-date information available.

We’ve also invested in rigorous infection prevention and control training for all our staff and, for those staff that come into contact with patients, the training is repeated every year. Throughout the year, we run a series of internal and pubic awareness campaigns, such as the Infection Prevention and Control Awareness Week, to ensure that people are made aware of the risks of infection. More importantly, the campaigns remind us of what we can all do at a personal level to reduce those risks, such as good general hygiene practices, using the alcohol-based hand gel and reducing the number of visitors.

We are constantly working to improve on the high standards of cleanliness in all our wards and departments, and to ensure that staff, patients and visitors alike practice the highest levels of hygiene.

Infection prevention and control is a key component of the Healthcare Commission’s Core Standards, by which all NHS Trusts – and other healthcare providers – are measured.

In April 2007, the Code of Practice for the Prevention and Control of Healthcare-Associated Infections came into force, as laid out in the Health Act 2006. The code aims to help NHS bodies to devise and implement strategies to prevent healthcare-associated infections. It sets out criteria by which hospitals should ensure that patients are cared for in a clean environment and where the risk of infections is kept as low as possible. Our infection prevention and control procedures include all the key recommendations of the code.

MRSA: MRSA is probably the highest profile infection risk that we face. In 2004, the Department for Health set a target for each NHS Trust in the country to reduce the number of incidences of hospital-acquired MRSA. We achieved our target in 2005/2006. In 2006/2007, we missed our target, recording 74 cases of MRSA against a target of 47. Put into the national perspective, however, the rate of MRSA per 10,000 beds between April and September 2006  was 1.33, compared to 1.84 for the same period the year before. It also compares favourably with other large NHS Trusts such as Leeds (2.28), Cambridge (2.78) and Oxford (2.65). Moreover, in 2006/2007 we were the fifth best performing hospital out of 26 national teaching hospitals in terms of MRSA rate per 10,000 bed days.

Clostridium difficile (C. difficile): For 2006/2007 we had a total of 637 patient episodes and 12 outbreaks of C. difficile, accounting for 110 lost bed days.

Our incidence of infection per 10,000 bed days (1.55), however, is good compared to other NHS trusts both locally and nationally. Our target for 2007/2008 is to reduce the number of cases by 5% to 518.
 

Much of the fight against infection is something to which you as a visitor or a patient, as well as our own staff, can make a huge difference. By remembering to follow these simple steps when you’re visiting hospital, you can help us to control infection risks in Newcastle’s Hospitals:

• Always remember to wash your hands using the alcohol-based hand gel provided when you enter or leave a ward.
• Wash your hands after using the toilet.
• Try and avoid sitting on beds.
• Please keep the number of visitors to a minimum.

And if you see members of staff flouting these rules, please don’t be afraid to challenge them.

Infection Prevention and Control is the responsibility of all of us.

Viruses such as MRSA and C. difficile are not confined to hospitals. About 1 in 3 people carries MRSA and C. difficile is present naturally in the gut of around 3% of adults and two-thirds of children. However, due to their nature, hospitals are particularly susceptible to infections such as these. By following the following simple steps below, you can make a huge difference to our efforts to reduce the number of infections in Newcastle’s hospitals:

• keep to a maximum of two visitors at any one time
• clean your hands with alcohol-based hand gel on entering or leaving a ward or department
• wash your hands at the sinks provided in children’s wards
• obtain special permission from the nurse in charge if visitors include children under 12 years old
• remember that ward toilets are not for public use. Instead, use the public toilets provided – and wash your hands with soap after using the toilet
• do not sit or lie on the patient’s bed
• change out of your work clothes before visiting if there’s a chance they could be contaminated (e.g. builders, gardeners, healthcare workers)
• do not touch wounds or hospital equipment such as drips or catheters
• check with the nurse in charge before visiting if you’ve been unwell
• do not borrow toiletries or towels from other patients 

If you’d like any further information on our infection control measures – or on infection control in general, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.