Hand hygiene

Hand hygiene

Right time: right place

Did you know?

• Clean hands do save lives
• Correct hand hygiene is the simplest, most effective way to reduce the risk of infection from germs including resistant germs
• Hands are the principal carriers of disease-causing germs.  It is important that everyone has the opportunity to clean their hands at critical moments
• Hand hygiene is the cornerstone of public health and infection control
• 88% of us feel it's ok to ask a nurse or doctor if their hands are clean before we're examined
• 98% of us believe washing our hands makes a difference to preventing and controlling infections.

You can expect: all hands will be clean hands.

Our commitment to hand hygiene...

We will:

• Provide facilities for cleaning hands
• Treat you with clean hands
• Be seen to be clean
• Monitor our progress and report how we're doing
• Listen to your views
• Encourage you to ask us if our hands are clean
• Teach people, including staff, patients and carers, the correct techniques for hand hygiene.

We ask you to:

• Follow our instructions on hand hygiene.

We have produced a number of leaflets which outline the importance of hand hygiene.  These are:

• What is MRSA?

• What is Clostridium difficile?

• Infection Control - The Facts, The Myths

To the right is the hand hygiene poster which explains exactly when to use soap and water and when to use cleansing gel.