CHANGING THE MINDSET ON HOSPITAL INFECTIONS

摘要

The prevention and control of health-care-associated infections (HCAIs) is a key priority for the NHS. After a quarter of a century in which infection was considered more of a nuisance than a serious threat, it is now at the top of the agenda for clinicians, NHS managers, the Department of Health (DH) and the government. One of the aims of the DH HCAI programme can be encapsulated as changing the mindset of clinicians and managers in the NHS from a focus on creating a system to deliver specialist clinical care and within which measures may be taken to prevent and control infection, to a system that in the first instance provides a safe environment for patient care where infection prevention is emphasised and within which the specialist care can be delivered.