KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Health N Nkonyeni to make a visit to Mahatma Ghandi
Hospital to investigate improvements to the hospital
17 August 2007
The Minister and the MEC will visit Mahatma Ghandi Memorial Hospital at
07h00 am to investigate if the recommendations made by the Task Force in 2005,
had been implemented to improve infection control at the hospital.
Following the outbreak of Klebsiella in the hospital in 2005, the Task Force
had made the following recommendations to improve the control of nosocomial
infections in the neonatal nursery at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital:
* Restructuring of Neonatal Healthcare Facilities at Mahatma Gandhi Hospital
to specifications that are mandatory for infection control. Special attention
has to be given to adequate hand washing facilities, waste disposal and
dedicated area for the preparation of milk feeds.
* The administration of Total Parental Nutrition (TPN) should be done under
sterile conditions according to strict protocols. There should be no sharing of
TPN bags.
* There should not be any multi-dosing from vial of medications especially
antibiotics.
* Nursing and medical staffing should be assessed according to recommended
guidelines. Kangaroo care should be implemented to provide special care to
small babies.
* A healthcare professional should be given the responsibility of monitoring
infection and implementing infection control policies. This person should work
closely with the doctor in charge of the newborn services and microbiology
services.
* The formation of an Infection Control Team is encouraged. This team should
have monthly meetings to discuss infection data from the healthcare facility.
The chair of this meeting should be the hospital manager who will also have the
overall responsibility for infection control in the facility. The hospital
manager should report to the Department of Health any outbreaks of nosocomial
infection in the facility as a matter of medical emergency.
* An outbreak of nosocomial infection should initiate a rapid response that
implements a policy of containment of the infection, investigation of the
cause, and a thorough appraisal of the healthcare system. This should include
microbiology and neonatology.
* The healthcare professional in charge of infection control should be
responsible for the data storage and retrieval of all infection cases in the
unit. Clinical audit for infection control should be performed yearly. This
should be done in conjunction with microbiological services and the report
released to the Department of Health.
The media is invited to join the Minister and MEC on a walkabout on
Saturday, 18 August 2007 at 07h00.
Enquiries:
Charity Bhengu
Cell: 083 679 7424
Desmond Motha
Cell: 083 295 3901
Issued by: Department of Health
17 August 2007
