St George’s wins international award for infection control
The Infection Control Team at St George’s Hospital has won second prize in the international Oxoid Infection Control Team of the Year Awards, designed to recognise and reward those who are making a real difference to improve standards of infection control within hospitals worldwide.
The team at St George’s has effectively reduced hospital infections through changes of working practices, broader team work with colleagues from other departments, and scrupulous attention to detail. The sustained effort of the St George’s team over a number of years, combined with new initiatives, was cited by the judges as worthy of recognition.
Dr Geraldine Walters, Director of Nursing and Infection Control at St George’s, said:
“This award is fantastic recognition for the team here at St George’s. Thanks to the dedication of staff across the Trust, our MRSA rate is now the third lowest of any teaching hospital in England and we reduced our Clostridium difficile rate by over 77% this year, which ranks the Trust in the top six acute hospital’s in London.”
“Our patients can be confident that we do everything we can to protect them from infection, and will continue to devise and introduce new activities and initiatives to further improve infection control measures at St George’s.”
The team will receive the award and a cheque for ?1000 at an awards presentation and celebration dinner on June 2.
Notes to editors
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2008/09 Oxoid Infection Control Team of the Year winners:
1st: Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, UK
2nd: St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK
3rd: Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, UK
Judges special award: Providence Health Care, Vancouver, Canada
About the Oxoid Infection Control Team of the Year Awards
The Oxoid Infection Control Team of the Year Awards were launched in 2003 and are designed to recognise and reward those who are making a real difference to improve standards of infection control within hospitals worldwide.
Oxoid, part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, is a world leading microbiology brand with products used within hospital laboratories to aid clinicians in their diagnosis of MRSA, Clostridium difficile and many other infections and diseases. For more information visitwww.oxoid.com.
The Awards are supported by the Hospital Infection Society, the Infection Prevention Society, the Association of Medical Microbiologists, and the International Federation of Infection Control. The judging panel is made up of representatives from each of these associations together with other experts in infection control, and the panel is chaired by Fiona Macrae, the Oxoid Awards Manager.
The 2008/09 judges were:
- Judy Potter, former president of the infection prevention society and director of infection prevention and control, Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust.
- Dr Tim Boswell, consultant medical microbiologist and infection control doctor, Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust, Queen’s Medical Centre Nottingham, and representative of the Hospital Infection Society.
- Dr Nizam Damani, clinical director infection prevention & control, Southern Health & Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland and representative of the International Federation of Infection Control.
- Dr Stephen Barrett, director of infection prevention and control, Southend University Hospital, editor of The Journal of Hospital Infection and representative of the Association of Medical Microbiologists.
- Laura Ward, clinical marketing manager, Oxoid
- Fiona Macrae, Oxoid awards manager and chairman of judges.
Previous winners of the Oxoid Infection Control Team of the Year were:
2007/2008
1st: Worcester Acute NHS Trust, UK
2nd: East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust, UK
3rd: Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, UK
2006/2007
1st: Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, UK
2nd: Cho Ray Hospital, Vietnam
3rd: Joint – Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, UK and Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Nigeria.
