BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE
THIRTY-THREE local health workers from NRH, HCC, Guadalcanal province, and nursing school of SINU attended an Infection Prevention and Control workshop at the Taiwan Health Center (THC) from October 30 to November 1.
THC Leader, Alice Hsu said the workshop was conducted by THC and two visiting experts from Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital (KMUH) in Taiwan.
They are Infectious Disease doctor Wei-Ru Lin and Infection Control nurse, Ching-Tzu Hung.
Dr Lin is the Director of Infection Control Center and Hung is the leader of the Infection Control Center.
During the opening ceremony, National Referral Hospital’s (NRH) Director of Nursing Department, Selwyn Hou said in recent years, healthcare-associated infection has become an important issue in the hospitals in Solomon Islands.
He stressed that implementation of the infection prevention and control program is not just the government’s responsibility as it also needs the cooperation of all staff members of the hospital, especially to comply with the policy and procedure of infection control.
At the workshop, Dr Lin provided lectures about infection control including how to break the transmission of infectious disease, tuberculosis and the catheter-associated urinary tract infection care bundle.
He also took time to visit the hospital where he led the participants to inspect the wards and suggested the building of a model ward.
Lin says a model ward of standard of infection control would include a clean environment with standard operating procedures for the patient care with an evidence-based guideline and care bundle with checklists.
Participants at the workshop were taught how to correctly use the N95 respirator and tested the use of a fluorescent lotion to demonstrate correct hand hygiene.
This is involved learning the importance of the correct hand hygiene method.
Leader of the Infection Control Unit at NRH, John Saohu also spoke about the current policy and guideline of infection prevention and control in Solomon Islands.
National Health Surveillance Unit leader, Alison Ripiapu spoke about emergency preparedness and response of emerging diseases including Dengue fever in Solomon Islands.
THC Leader, Hsu, expressed that the Infection Prevention and Infection Control had been held annually since 2015.
“We all sincerely hope that all these Solomon participants will be able to implement the programme of prevention and control of infection to improve patient safety in Solomon Islands,” she said.
