Reducing Probability of Patients Catching Infection at Hospital
Ministry of HealthSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the strategies implemented to reduce the probability of patients catching infections in hospitals, as raised by Ms Joan Pereira. Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong highlighted the Ministry of Health’s mandatory National Infection Prevention and Control Guidelines, which include active surveillance, regular audits, and the 2018 inaugural peer review across public hospitals. The Ministry further strengthens antimicrobial stewardship and maintains surveillance of resistant organisms, successfully reducing healthcare-associated MRSA infection rates from 2013 to 2017. Efforts also include facilitating cross-institutional learning with private hospitals and monitoring performance standards developed by the National Infection Prevention and Control Committee. Lastly, hospitals have implemented visitor restrictions and emphasize public hand hygiene to mitigate transmission risks while patients receive medical treatment.
Transcript
65 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.
Mr Gan Kim Yong: The Ministry of Health has been working with experts on the National Infection Prevention and Control Committee 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 the National Infection Prevention and Control Committee. 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 programs, 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.