Are your hands clean, doc?

Star: KUALA LUMPUR: Remind doctors to keep their hands clean. That is what Health Ministry deputy director-general (medical) Datuk Dr Noorimi Morad wants nurses to do to ensure that patients do not get infected while in hospital.
“Nurses are better in complying than doctors. We have to persist in increasing awareness,” she told The Star yesterday after opening the 3rd International Congress of the Asia-Pacific Society of Infection Control.
“It is not that they do not want to do it, but they might forget when they are very busy. So, the nurses must be around to remind the doctors.
“The transmission of infection occurs through activities like when doctors examine a patient and move from one patient to the next. That is one of the most common ways of transmission.”
She said it was important for all healthcare providers to change their mindset and attitude in keeping up with the latest trends.
This included the “alcohol-based hand rub”, introduced by the ministry last year in critical care areas, whose usage would be expanded to all in-patient units this year.
Malaysia affirmed its commitment to the World Health Organisation’s Global Patient Safety Challenge last year, which emphasises the delivery of safe healthcare through effective hand hygiene.
Dr Noorimi said infection control committees in hospitals would help create awareness besides conduct training programmes and monitor activities of staff, adding that the ministry was still dissatisfied with the level of awareness.