Tipperary healthcare facilities join HSE hand hygiene initiative
Healthcare facilities in Cahir and Clonmel joined the RESIST Programme
Healthcare facilities in Tipperary have become the latest to join a HSE initiative aimed at promoting hand hygiene across the health service.
Cahir Primary Care Centre, and both the South Tipperary Community Care Centre and South Tipperary Therapy Services Centre in Clonmel took part in the initiative, which aims to support and educate colleagues on hand hygiene and to promote anti-microbial resistance and infection control (AMRIC).
The RESIST campaignis a brand for a number of hand hygiene and infection prevention and control initiatives under the HSE Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control Programme (AMRIC).
One of these initiatives is a rollout of the RESIST hand hygiene awareness programme.
The programme promotes a combination of hand hygiene training with standardised national training materials.
The RESIST campaign is to refresh the HSE’s hand hygiene messages and to keep promoting the importance of clean hands.
Fiona McKeown, Community Health Network Manager/South Tipperary, HSE said: "Cleaning your hands properly, at the correct time, when delivering care to our patients, is the most effective way to stop the spread of many infections including COVID-19.
"When healthcare workers like doctors, nurses and carers keep their hands clean, they help prevent the spread of serious healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs). These are infections that can happen in any healthcare service," she added.
"Cahir Primary Care Centre, South Tipperary Community Care Centre, South Tipperary Therapy Services Centre and our HSE services locally have an excellent record in hand hygiene but we are always looking to improve our standards.
"The RESIST programme will help us to refresh and energise our hand hygiene approach among both staff and patients and we are delighted to have been selected to be part of the rollout in Primary Care," Ms McKeown said.