NHS hand hygiene figures impress board members

NHS Shetland’s staff compliance with hand hygiene has been praised by board members.

Between April and June this year the compliance rate was 99.1 per cent.

Audits are undertaken on a quarterly basis to monitor compliance with hand hygiene.

A report to a meeting of the NHS Shetland board on Tuesday said that “we have adopted zero tolerance to poor hand hygiene, so every occasion when a member of staff fails to comply is dealt with immediately and additional training continues to be offered as necessary”.

Whilst hand hygiene has always been a focus for healthcare workers, the Covid pandemic has brought the practice into focus.

Board member Colin Campbell said the figure of 99.1 per cent was “phenomenal”, with Jane Haswell echoing his comments.

Cleaning standards compliance for the board for April to June was 98.5 per cent, which was the highest rate in a while.

Meanwhile a report to board members highlighted that the uptake for the second dose of the MMR vaccine in Shetland remains “stubbornly low and has plateaued in recent years”.

In Shetland uptake by five years of age was 83.7 per cent compared to the national uptake rate of 92.3 per cent.