ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Hand-washing is being carried out less rigorously at a number of hospitals in Ireland after reaching record levels during the pandemic, according to a report.

The HSE target is for 90 per cent compliance measured against 30 hand hygiene opportunities. These include: before and after a clean or aseptic procedure, before and after touching a patient and after touching a patient's surroundings.

Ireland's acute hospitals are required to measure healthcare worker compliance against all 30 hand hygiene opportunities across seven randomly-selected wards in their facility, resulting in a total of 210 opportunities per hospital.

The latest hand-washing audit by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre revealed that national compliance had dipped to 92.6 per cent in May and June last year compared with 93.2 per cent during the previous October-December period. But some facilities reported lower figures such as 88.6 per cent in the Coombe Maternity hospital; 87.1 per cent at Sligo General Hospital and 84.6 per cent at Wexford General Hospital.

Compliance in general was highest after body-fluid exposure, measuring 95.5 per cent overall. But it fell to 90.1 per cent after touching a patient's surroundings.

And the only hospital with 100 per cent compliance was Crumlin Children's Hospital.

Medics were the worst culprits when it came to hand-washing lapses. The latest audit revealed that only 86.4 per cent of medics washed their hands at critical points compared with 94.5 per cent of nurses and 90.3 per cent of auxiliary grades such as healthcare assistants and porters.

Measuring hand hygiene compliance by direct observation is described as the "gold standard" by the World Health Organisation according to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.