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Antimicrobial Awareness Week – prevention is better than cure

November 19, 2021

Preventing the spread of organisms that cause healthcare-associated infections (HCAI) and ensuring optimal antimicrobial use is fundamentally important at our Trust.

Carbapenem-resistant gram-negative bacteria (CPE/CRE), multi drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are an emerging cause of healthcare acquired infection that poses a significant threat to public health.

‘Prevention is better than cure’ is the perfect phrase to highlight some of the simplest things you can do to support the fight against antimicrobial resistance. Hand washing is the simplest and most effective way of preventing healthcare associated infections which in turn will  reduce unnecessary use of antibiotics and transmission of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.

The World Health Organisation is celebrating World Toilet Day today to raise awareness of the 3.6 billion people who are living without access modern safe sanitation. According to a recent survey only 19% of people wash their hands after using the toilet – putting themselves and those around them at significant risk of infection. Please remember hand hygiene is essential after using the toilet for patients, staff and visitors. Currently hand hygiene compliance is 98 per cent for our Trust.

During the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, the IPC team will be doing commode checks to ensure that they are clean and safe for patients.

Surveillance of antibiotic resistance and monitoring of IPC practices are crucial in order to understand the trust specific issues and put in place appropriate preventive measures and develop tailored antimicrobial stewardship strategies.

  • Hand hygiene compliance: The 5 WHO moments
  • Practice related to the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
  • Environmental cleaning compliance
  • Compliance with indwelling devices and intravenous lines insertion and management
  • Difficile rates
  • Nosocomial / hospital acquired infection rates
  • Compliance with the mandatory aseptic non-touch techniques

Adopting robust infection prevention and hand hygiene practices will prevent Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and protect patients from multi drug resistant infections.

All colleagues at SWB have a responsibility to ensure they are compliant with and adhere to infection prevention and control policies, procedures and guidelines.

Be sure to check out this short video featuring Dr Chizo Agwu, Deputy Medical Director, pledging to raise awareness of antimicrobial resistance and promote best practice.

Antibiotics quiz: Be sure to have a go at our antibiotic quiz. The person who gets the most answers correct will be entered into a draw to win some Love2Shop vouchers. You can complete the quiz by clicking here.