Reducing Probability of Patients Catching Infection at Hospital

Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Health what is being done by our hospitals to reduce the probability of patients catching an infection at the hospital while being treated for other medical conditions.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has been working with experts on the National Infection Prevention and Control Committee (NIPCC) to improve infection control in hospitals. The National Infection Prevention and Control Guidelines for Acute Hospitals, published in August 2017, outlines the infection prevention and control programmes that all public and private hospitals are required to put in place. These programmes cover standard and transmission-based precautions, active surveillance, outbreak response procedures, education of employees in infection prevention and monitoring of infection control practices.

Our hospitals carry out audits regularly to assess infection control practices and address gaps, if any.

MOH monitors the performance of all hospitals on standards developed by NIPCC. In April 2018, MOH completed the inaugural infection prevention and control peer review across all public hospitals. We also held a series of engagement sessions with the private hospitals to facilitate cross institutional exchange and learning.

MOH has worked to strengthen key antimicrobial resistance control efforts through antimicrobial stewardship programmes, and maintains surveillance of antimicrobial-resistant organisms. While healthcare-associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) infections dropped from 0.84 per 10,000 patient days in 2013 to 0.38 in 2017, we cannot afford to be complacent. We need to continue to work with stakeholders, including doctors and healthcare providers, to strengthen antimicrobial stewardship.

Finally, our hospitals have implemented measures to restrict the number of visitors to inpatients to reduce the risk of transmission of infections. We can also play our part by washing our hands before and after visiting our friends or relatives in the hospitals.