Patients & Public

Infection Prevention & Control

Infection Prevention and Control at The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust
The prevention of infection is a high priority at the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust. This is because it is vital to the quality of care that patients attending the hospital receive.

There is an Infection Prevention Team who are available to give advice on infections and how to prevent their spread but it is all staff members’ responsibility to ensure that infection prevention practices are followed very carefully. Patients and visitors can also play a part. If you are a patient or visitor please see follow the link below to find out what you can do to help reduce infections.

Facts and Figures
The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust participates fully in the Department of Health’s mandatory surveillance scheme. This means that the numbers of patients developing infection due to MRSA in the blood and the number of patients acquiring Clostridium difficile associated diarrhoea are reported frequently and the Department of Health publishes these figures. The latest figures can be accessed by the following link below:

http://www.hpa.org.uk/infections/topics_az/hai/mandatory_report_2006.htm

If you have questions about your risk of developing an infection then please ask the health care staff looking after you or read the section ‘How can patients and visitors help?’

General principles for infection prevention and control
There are several actions which will help reduce infections and should be done by staff and visitors on a regular basis some are explained in the visitors and patients sections of this site. There are 3 main principles though which are most important.

Clean hands – using alcohol hand gel or soap and water.
Keep the hospital clean and tidy.
Isolation of patients with known or suspected infections wherever possible.

Infection Prevention Annual Reports
Click here to download a copy of the 2006/07 Infection Prevention Annual Report

Click here to download a copy of the 2007/08 Infection Prevention Annual Report

Click here to download a copy of the 2008/09 Infection Prevention Annual Report