Hand Hygiene: NHS

Debate between Andrea Jenkyns and Douglas Chapman

Wednesday 13th January 2016 Westminster Hall

[Andrea Jenkyns (Morley and Outwood) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alan.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Amber Valley (Nigel Mills) for securing the debate and for his support of my campaign on hand hygiene. I also thank the hon. Member for Central Ayrshire (Dr Whitford) who, with the hon. Member for Wolverhampton North East (Emma Reynolds), worked with me on a cross-party campaign on hand hygiene. Recently, we got more than 50 MPs to sign up to it. I ask anyone present who has not signed up to join us, please. Hand hygiene is a bit of a personal crusade of mine. We simply cannot ignore the importance of hand hygiene in hospitals and the community. It is the single most effective, yet simple, way to prevent avoidable infections and so reduce the burden on the NHS.

I will talk a bit about my background and why I am such a fierce advocate of hand hygiene. My father, Clifford, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2011; the prognosis was good, but he got fluid on his lungs and he went into hospital for a routine operation. The simple procedure should have taken about 20 minutes, but a junior doctor practised reinserting the lung drain with medical students for two hours. My father subsequently became infected with MRSA. What we saw in the hospital was shocking. One nurse walked in, put antibacterial cream on her hands, put something up my father’s nose and did not wash her hands. Basic things were not happening. I constantly observed a failure to follow basic hygiene procedures, which I mentioned to nurses at the time, but I was ignored and even rebuked. A few months later, in November 2011, he died from MRSA.

Afterwards I got in touch with MRSA Action UK, the charity, and became its regional representative. In Parliament, I set up an all-party group for patient safety for the Patients Association—I commend the Minister, the Secretary of State and the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston (Justin Madders), for supporting it. From my conversations with the Secretary of State and other Ministers, I know they are taking hand hygiene seriously and have plans to deal with it.

On areas for improvement, the World Health Organisation has taken a lead in establishing good practice in hand hygiene around the world, although through Dame Sally Davies, our chief medical officer, and the Prime Minister we have put the issue of antimicrobial resistance on to the global agenda. The WHO talks about the five moments for hand hygiene and identifies when medical workers should wash their hands, providing clear guidance that could make a real difference to hand hygiene routines. I commend the work done by everyone at the WHO.

In England, hand hygiene is most frequently monitored through direct observation—a member of the ward staff will take time to observe colleagues and their adherence to the five moments of hand hygiene. Such studies often produce incredibly high rates of compliance, nudging around 80% or 90%. That is because direct observation is ineffective. Only a minimum of 10 moments have to be observed, which on a busy ward is negligible. Furthermore, staff are aware that they are being monitored and will often change their behaviour—I know that from personal experience.

The APPG had an evidence session at which a lady from the Royal College of Nursing was present. I asked her a simple question—whether she had ever disciplined anyone or taken any of her nursing staff to one side to discipline them on lack of hand hygiene. The answer was no. That was in a 20-year career. We need to ensure a place of consequence if hand-washing is not adhered to.

The hon. Member for Amber Valley and I were presented with some startling statistics at a recent meeting with the Deb Group, which kindly sponsored our cross-party Handz campaign. They included registered rates of hand hygiene compliance as low as 20% to 40% in hospitals in which Deb systems were installed. Such figures are common to other companies offering a similar service in the healthcare sector. We cannot ignore the fact that, although the hospital statistics show a high rate of compliance with the five moments, in reality it is not always the case.

We need to implement a new system for proper observation and monitoring, hand in hand—excuse the pun—with proper awareness of the risks of poor hand hygiene. The hon. Member for Central Ayrshire has told me a lot about the fantastic work being done in NHS Scotland, educating the public with a proactive campaign of posters and information.

[Douglas Chapman (Dunfermline and West Fife) (SNP)]

As the hon. Member for Bridgend (Mrs Moon) has suggested, there are simple ways in which to improve hand hygiene. Recently, when visiting a school, I noticed that children were washing their hands to the two verses of “Happy Birthday to You”, which seemed to be going down well and was doing the trick. Does the hon. Lady accept that that is a good way of introducing children to hand hygiene at an early age? It is cost-effective, simple, memorable and starts the hand hygiene routine at a very early age.

[Andrea Jenkyns]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for making that point. With MRSA Action, the charity that I am involved with, I have been going into schools and we use that technique of singing “Happy Birthday” twice. The Handz campaign with the hon. Members for Central Ayrshire and for Wolverhampton North East is about education in schools and promoting hand hygiene from a young age. It is a year-long campaign running through to October and we are also going to go into care homes—there was a recent Westminster Hall debate on care homes—to emphasise the importance of good hand hygiene with the vulnerable in care homes.

Going back to what I was saying, hospitals in Scotland are covered in reminders for people to wash their hands and about the risks brought on to the ward if they do not. I am sure that the hon. Member for Central Ayrshire will mention this herself, but, in Scottish hospitals, people observe staff members when the staff members do not know they are being observed, which is a much better system than the one we use.

To sum up, we need to do a number of different things to improve hand hygiene compliance. First, we need to improve observation and reporting of hand-hygiene breaches so that we can get real and effective reports on compliance. As I said earlier, we need a place of consequence when that does not happen.

Secondly, we need to make it clearer to patients and staff when a ward is not hitting its compliance targets. NHS staff strive for brilliance and we thank them for their hard work, but we need to ensure that they are aware of areas in which they need to improve.

Thirdly, we need to ensure that people are properly aware of the risks of poor hand hygiene compliance in hospitals and elsewhere. Those achievable aims would make a real difference. The hon. Members for Wolverhampton North East, for Central Ayrshire and I are working hard to increase awareness through the Handz campaign and are planning further events.

Hand hygiene goes beyond people catching infections in hospital. More infections means that more antibiotics are needed for treatment, which leads to antimicrobial resistance, which is a huge global threat. Dame Sally Davies, our chief medical officer, has been an advocate on that issue and supported our campaign.

Hand hygiene is incredibly important. I reiterate my thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Amber Valley for securing the debate, which will make a valuable contribution to discussions on the subject. The UK already leads the fight and it is great to see so many colleagues from the Government and other parties with such great enthusiasm for the subject.