10 May 2018 – 8:33
The Peninsula
Doha: Aster DM Healthcare has marked the World Hand Hygiene Day with a series of activities.
Four-day long events were held at the Aster Hospital and Aster Medical Centers with the support of Ministry of Public Health to enhance patient safety and to spread awareness among healthcare professionals, patient and family members.
The final ceremony and gift distribution for various competitions were held at Aster Hospital. Dhouha Ammar Hamdani, Infection Control Observer, and Dr Nahla Hassan Sharaf, representing Ministry of Public Health; Dr Nazar Moopan, Medical Director and Chief Of Medical Staff – Aster DMH Qatar; Dr Kapil Chib, Chief Operating Officer – Aster Hospital; Dr Raghu K, Medical Director – Aster Hospital; Dr Mahesh Patel, Senior Manager, Quality Assurance, spoke about the need and importance of Infection Control among healthcare professionals.
World Hand Hygiene Day is an awareness program to increase awareness and instances of effective hand hygiene initiated by World Health Organization globally. This year the campaign theme is “It’s in your hands – Prevent Sepsis in Healthcare”. This theme brings to light the need for a greater focus on hand hygiene and infection prevention and control programs in the on-going global battle against antibiotic resistance.
Studies have shown that although compliance rates are improving, significant percentage of health care workers fail to consistently wash their hands between patients. Most of studies has strongly correlated that the basic cause of any disease is infection spread through the hands.
Hamdani, appreciated Aster efforts for supporting WHO Save Lives: Clean Your Hands campaign which aims to progress the goal of maintaining a global profile on the importance of hand hygiene in health care and to ‘bring people together’ in support of hand hygiene improvement globally.
Commenting on the initiative, Dr Sameer Moopan, Chief Executive officer, Aster DM Healthcare- Qatar said, “At Aster Hospital and Medical Centers we ensure that strict compliance to the infection control protocols is maintained with zero tolerance to any errors. Aster Hospital which was opened in Doha, in the last one year has performed over 500 surgeries and we have been able to maintain 100 percent compliance to infection control protocols of MOPH resulting in zero infection rates post surgeries. The continuum and adherence to the principles by the doctors, nurses and paramedics has helped us in delivering quality healthcare service to the patients at the hospital and clinics.
Commenting on the initiative, Dr Patel, said that Aster is committed to ensure quality and patient safety in which hand hygiene play a crucial role in preventing infection in healthcare facilities. As a part of our commitment toward community for spreading awareness we have educated more than 3200 students in last year.
