NHS hand hygiene campaign ‘delivered tangible benefits’

The national cleanyourhands campaign launched by the NHS in 2005 has been shown to have offered tangible benefits in terms of patient safety.

An evaluation of the scheme has been carried out by University College London (UCL) to show the impact of the government-spearheaded hand hygiene scheme in reducing rates of MRSA and C. difficile infections.

Over the four-year period, the combined procurement of soap and bedside alcohol handrub almost trebled, while MRSA bacteraemia rates fell from 1.88 to 0.91 cases per 10,000 bed-days and C. difficile infections dropped to 9.49 per 10,000, from 16.75.

Principal investigator Dr Sheldon Stone, of the UCL Medical School, said the campaign has been a "real British success story" that has led to a cultural change within the NHS.

He added: "Now the campaign has stopped, many in the infection control community would like to see the progress maintained and built upon with a new national hand hygiene strategy or an updated campaign."

The cleanyourhands scheme was developed by the National Patient Safety Agency and moved away from its central campaign model in 2010.