An education in infection prevention

The Infection Prevention Conference and Exhibition will be held at the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC), from the 19-21 September. This annual event is organised by the Infection Prevention Society, which exists to ensure the advancement of education in infection prevention and control for the benefit of the community as a whole. A highlight of the three-day conference programme is expected to be the opening session, The EM Cottrell Lecture, which is dedicated to the first infection control nurse appointed in the UK. Entitled “Stronger Together” this year it will be presented by Anne Bialachowski, immediate past president, Community and Hospital Infection Control Association, Canada (CHICA). She will discuss how practitioners can become stronger by working collaboratively at local, national and international level.

Wound care
The morning then splits into three concurrent streams, the first of which focuses on wound care. The initial speaker for this stream is Mark Collier, lead nurse consultant at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust. He will be looking at the prevention of infection in acute wounds and will review current evidence and best practice, highlighting the current surgical site infection guidelines, identifying key learning points from the Surgical Site Infection Surveillance Services (SSISS) and looking to the future. The second wound care lecture “Open wounds: infection prevention, treatment and the social care setting” will be presented by Andrew Kingsley, clinical manger infection control and tissue viability at North Devon Healthcare Trust. He will provide an overview of best practice in the prevention and treatment of infection in open wounds and will explore infection in a specific social setting. This stream concludes with a session presented by Philip Roberts, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at University Hospital North Staffordshire, discussing why the risk of infection is increased by prosthetics, recognition and surveillance of infection in prosthetics and prevention and management of prosthetic infections. Running concurrently with the wound care stream, Dr Mary Ramsay, consultant epidemiologist, and head of the Immunisation Department, Centre for Infections at the Health Protection Agency, will present “the Hepatitis ‘C’hallenge.” She will look at how the epidemiology of this disease is posing a public health threat and how emerging diagnostic and treatment can more effectively detect and treat the disease. Following this session Dr Andrew Riordan, consultant in paediatric infectious diseases at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, will explore how HCAIs differ for children. He will also look at the strategies in place to reduce HCAIs in children and how preventing central line infections in children may differ from adults. If you are new to infection prevention, a highlight on the first day should be the “New to Infection Prevention” session, which has been redesigned and expanded for this year’s event. The objectives of this workshop are to meet colleagues, find out more about the Infection Prevention Society, gain an awareness of national drivers/priorities, and have the opportunity to share and discuss best practice as well as personal experiences, anxieties and challenges. The afternoon session on the first day will commence with a look at the challenges and opportunities facing the evolving NHS. NHS writer, broadcaster and commentator, Roy Lilley, will discuss the future of infection prevention and quality within the emerging NHS.

Focus on norovirus