Frequently asked questions
Hand Hygiene and NHS Scotland
One of the key elements of this campaign is to raise awareness of hand hygiene among NHS Staff, patients and visitors. It is important to stress that the campaign within the NHS is aimed at all NHS Staff – not just those associated with Infection Control.
Activities will be ongoing within each NHS Board between now and the end of March 2008 and will take account of any local initiatives which are currently underway within each NHS Board.
The materials being developed for the NHS are applicable in the majority of other healthcare settings across Scotland such as private hospitals and practices.
Responsibility for implementing this campaign within the Board lies with the Local Health Board Co-ordinator (LHBC). For more details on the role of the LHBC click here.
Health Protection Scotland has published the first Compliance with Hand Hygiene – Audit Report as part of the National NHS Hand Hygiene Campaign.
This report is the first to present hand hygiene compliance at a country level and is an excellent first step in understanding compliance throughout NHSScotland.
The report features overall audit results for hand hygiene compliance in Scotland, by NHS Board and by staff group. These are presented for the 1st and 2nd audit periods in 2007 when LHBCs undertook audits throughout their NHS Boards. There are a number of limitations to this type of data collection which are also described, as are the next steps that have been established in order to address hand hygiene compliance and support achieving the best possible standards.
This will be available for download from http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/haiic/ic/nationalhandhygienecampaign.aspx
