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Top nurse says - ‘clean your hands’

Chief Nursing Officer for England, Chris Beasley, visited Addenbrooke’s today, Monday 11 April, to help launch the ‘clean your hands’ campaign.

Chris Beasley toured a few wards and met with modern matrons and the infection control team who were keen to tell her how they are going about reducing infection and keeping the hospital clean and tidy.

Addenbrooke's chief nurse, Margaret Berry with Chris Beasley

Margaret Berry, Addenbrooke’s chief nurse said: “We have done a tremendous amount of work over the last year to ensure we provide a clean and safe hospital for our patients. Alcohol-based hand cleaning gel has been introduced into all areas of the hospital; all wards have been thoroughly cleaned and our daily cleaning routine has been improved; we’ve taken down the old fabric bedside curtains which could harbour germs and replaced them with hygienic disposable ones.

“But most of all, we’ve been concentrating on encouraging everyone, patients, visitors and staff, to do their bit to help reduce infection. Our modern matrons monitor cleanliness levels on the wards and are on hand to make improvements immediately; we encourage patients to ask staff to clean their hands, and we tell visitors not to visit if they have an infection, to clean their hands when entering and leaving a ward, and not to sit on patient beds.

Chris Beasley said she was impressed with the action being taken at Addenbrooke's to improve cleanliness and patient safety, and encouraged staff to keep up the good work.

Speaking about her visit Chris Beasley said: “The 'clean your hands' campaign has really made a big impact in capturing the imagination of patients, visitors and staff. It's been really successful in making cleaning your hands fun."

April 2005

For further press/media information contact: PR & Communications Department, Box 53, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ; Tel: 01223 274 433; Fax: 01223 257 143; Minicom: 01223 274 604.