Netcare hospitals, Medicross family medical and dental centres, Prime Cure clinics, Netcare 911 and National Renal Care dialysis centres across the country will be actively supporting the World Health Organization (WHO) SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands campaign on World Hand Hygiene Day, 5 May. Management and staff members at these facilities will engage in various activities to raise awareness of the importance of hand hygiene in preventing the spread of germs.
Pic: Netcare Group CEO, Dr Richard Friedland; Netcare’s medical director, Dr Anchen Laubscher; Netcare’s director of quality leadership, Dr Dena van den Bergh; and the MD of Netcare’s Hospital Division, Jacques Du Plessis (pictured here from left to right) show their support for Netcare’s participation in the World Health Organization (WHO) and the South African Department of Health’s global campaign, SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands, which coincides with World Hand Hygiene Day on 5 May.
“Hand hygiene is a basic tenet of safe healthcare and World Hand Hygiene Day provides a good opportunity to help spread this vital message to the public and for our staff members to show their commitment to practising hand hygiene at all times when caring for patients,” says Netcare’s director of quality leadership, Dr Dena van den Bergh.
“Disinfection of hands is critical in a healthcare setting. It forms part of the basic protocol for staff of Netcare hospitals and there can be no complacency when it comes to this aspect of healthcare,” Dr Van den Bergh notes. Netcare Unitas Hospital in Pretoria is one of the facilities whose staff enthusiastically embraced the challenge to spread the message of hand hygiene.
“Our staff members will participate in a mass hand hygiene event in the wards, in which doctors and willing patients will participate. We will also use the opportunity to educate members of the public who are visiting our hospital, by undertaking a hand hygiene relay that will start at the top of the spiral staircase near our hospital’s entrance, include the oncology ward and emergency department, and end at the reception area. It is important that members of the public practise sound hand hygiene to help prevent the spread of disease causing viruses and bacteria,” says Netcare Unitas Hospital’s general manager, Robert Jordaan.
Staff members at Netcare Unitas Hospital in Pretoria showing their support for the World Health Organization’s SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands campaign
Staff members at Netcare Unitas Hospital in Pretoria showing their support for the World Health Organization’s SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands campaign n the WHO African region, South Africa and Nigeria were neck-in-neck in the run up to World Hand Hygiene Day in terms of the number of hospitals registered for the SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands campaign. Netcare hospitals represent a significant proportion of South Africa’s contribution to this global project.
The National Department of Health, Federation of Infectious Diseases Societies of Southern Africa (FIDSSA) and the South African Antibiotic Stewardship Programme (SAASP) are also supporting the SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands campaign.
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Issued by: Martina Nicholson Associates (MNA) on behalf of Netcare
Contact : Martina Nicholson, Graeme Swinney, Sarah Wilson or Meggan Saville
Telephone: (011) 469 3016
Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected]