Opening this year’s Infection Prevention conference, Infection Prevention Society president Julie Storr emphasised that infection prevention and control is about saving lives – a key element in achieving this will be the use of patient safety and implementation science, which can help delegates translate evidence into practice and deliver service improvement.
Influencing behaviour of healthcare workers, in order to improve patient safety, was the core theme of the morning sessions and Julie Storr reminded delegates of the ‘huge sphere of influence’ that delegates have collectively.
“There are thousands of hospitals and healthcare facilities, and over 1.7m health and social care workers in the UK and Ireland that we can potentially influence, in our day-to-day jobs. Most important is the fact that, through our abilities to influence others and change behaviour, we can have an effect on the lives of patients and service users. The vision to ensure that no patient is harmed by preventable infection is all about the people that receive health and social care. We can stop them from being harmed and, in some cases, from dying.”
At the conference, IPS officially announced the appointment of two new patrons: Professor Didier Pittet and Professor Tricia Hart. Prof Pittet is the director of the infection control programme, University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, and the external programme lead for the WHO First Global Patient Safety Challenge: Clean Care is Safer Care. In 2007, he was awarded an honorary CBE for services to the prevention of healthcare-associated infections.
Professor Tricia Hart was appointed chief executive of South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in January, this year. A previous nurse, midwife, community nurse and health visitor, Tricia has been a member of the Caldicott committee and nurse advisor to Robert Francis on the inquiry into the failings at Mid Staffordshire. She was awarded the national award for inspirational leadership in 2009 and was recently named as one of the HSJ’s top 100 clinical leaders in the NHS.
Speaking at the conference opening, Prof Hart said: “The work that many of you do, not only across the UK, but also internationally, is some of the best when we look at the outcomes in terms of harm reduction, continued improvement and sustainability in patient safety – whether this is in the hospital or community setting.
“This event is about reflecting on our potential, our behaviour change and our opportunity for leadership, when we see issues that could impact on the safety and care of patients. It is important that each of us speaks up and speaks out when we see care that could be compromised – particularly as the NHS is going through such major financial challenges. We must ensure that we do what Robert Francis said – to put people before numbers.”
