10 March 2015
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals is launching a campaign to make sure the only thing that’s infectious in our hospitals is hand hygiene. We want the habit of keeping our hands clean to spread, not infection!
The best way to stop or reduce the spread of any organism, whether it is MRSA, C. difficile, influenza or norovirus, is to break the chain of infection. Hand hygiene is the easiest and best way to do this.
Consultant Microbiologist Dr Christine Bates, Lead Infection Control Doctor, said: “When it comes to infections, prevention is better than cure. Although a relatively simple task to undertake, hand hygiene is the single most important and effective means of doing so, whether using soap and water or alcohol hand rubs.”
To raise awareness of this, we are launching the Let’s Make Hand Hygiene Infectious campaign. As part of the campaign, we are asking you to submit ‘cleanie’ images of you striking a pose with your clean hands (as in the attached image).
We are starting a five week cleanie countdown before we begin to collect the images, which will be used to help remind staff and patients of the importance of hand washing and infection control.
So, let’s Make Hand Hygiene Infectious!
Post your cleanies on the STH facebook Facebook page
or on twitter Twitter @SheffieldHosp using #cleanie.
Please ensure you do not include patients on photographs and if colleagues are included that you have their permission to post the photo on social media.