"Poor hand hygiene and nurses arguing"

Dear Concerned about care,

Thank you for taking the time to share your recent experience in our Emergency Department. You are correct in stating that Hand Hygiene is one of the most important strategies in reducing the spread of infection and we recognise that improving this among our health care workers is the single most effective intervention to reduce the risk of hospital- acquired infections. With this in mind, your feedback is invaluable to helping us understand were we are getting it right and where we need to focus our attention. Whilst I am pleased to hear that nursing staff in ED performed appropriate Hand Hygiene before attending to you, it is disappointing to learn that this was not the case for the doctors. I apologise for this and will ensure that your feedback is provided to the team in the ED particularly medical staff. We do monitor Hand Hygiene across our departments and take steps to ensure compliance including having antibacterial hand-wash in multiple locations and encouraging patients to ask staff if they have washed their hands prior to touching them. In this instance however we could have done better.

With regards to you overhearing two staff members arguing about a patient's care, I would also like to apologise. This is not the experience we want for our patients. Your story will be shared with the department at a team meeting as a reminder for staff to discuss patient care in a professional way and maintain confidentiality for the patient involved.

With best wishes to you and your family for a health and safe 2018.

Kind regards

Paul Forden

Chief Executive

South Metropolitan Health Service