Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to educate people on the importance of hand-sanitising products in the prevention of infection in hospitals.

The Health and Social Care Act 2008 Code of Practice on the prevention and control of infections and related guidance sets 10 compliance criteria to manage healthcare associated infections. This includes one covering infection prevention and control which refers to hand hygiene and recommends that providers undertake hand hygiene audits. The Care Quality Commission will monitor a registered provider on how it complies with these requirements.

NHS England Sign up to Safety is a national initiative to help National Health Service organisations and their staff achieve their patient safety aspirations, and care for their patients in the safest way possible. The World Health Organization leads the ‘Save Lives: Clean Your Hands’ campaign on 5 May each year. This is a global campaign which serves as a call to action for healthcare workers to improve hand hygiene. To coincide with this, on 5 May 2016, NHS England Sign up to Safety ran a promotion to remind staff of the important role of hand hygiene at the point of care:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/signuptosafety/2016/05/05/claire-kilpatrick-julie-storr/

Public Health England operates a free health education resource called e-Bug, which aims to reduce antibiotic resistance by helping children and young people understand infections and antibiotic use. Hand hygiene is included in this teaching tool:

http://www.e-bug.eu/