World Hand Hygiene Day observed at DMCH

Ludhiana: The hand hygiene day is commemorated worldwide by WHO on 5th May every year to highlight the importance of hand hygiene in healthcare and routine activities. This year theme for the day was Seconds save lives – clean your hands.
In view of this, DMCH conducted awareness session for patients and their attendants in waiting area of the COVID 19 testing centre by and also surprise visit were conducted in various wards of the hospital. During the session, the audience was told about importance of six hand washing steps recommended by World Health Organisation (WHO).
 
Secretary Managing Society DMCH, Sh Prem Kumar Gupta appreciated the efforts of Infection control committee in creating awareness on this important topic and in decreasing hospital infection rates that is the need of the hour during this crucial time.
 
Maintaining good hand hygiene not only ensures your protection but also helps prevent the spread of infections to others around us says Medical Sudtt  Dr. Ashwani Kumar Chaudhary (Chairperson, Hospital Infection Control Committee)
 
Dr. Veenu Gupta (Professor & Head of Microbiology) talked about the importance of hand hygiene and explained that we come in contact with innumerable surfaces every day. Remember to wash your hands thoroughly after using the restroom, after touching handle of doors, after using cell phones and before eating ,  touching your face with your hands, and before wearing your mask.
 
On this occasion a quiz competition was conducted for the Paramedical students and MBBS Batch 2019, poster were presented by the PG students of the Microbiology Department and Infection control nurses. Surprise visit were conducted to check hand hygiene compliance among various health care workers under the supervision of  Nursing superintendent Ms Sunita Deb , Dr Veenu Gupta and her team and  best performing nursing staff Ms Manjit Kaur (Medicine Ward), Ms Shinder Pal Kaur (Peaditric Ward) and Dr Ramandeep Singh from Surgery ward were awarded for good hand hygiene compliance.
 
Six steps for hand hygiene (recommended by WHO) include:
1.    Rub palm to palm
2.    Right palm over back of left hand and left palm over back of right hand
3.    Palm to palm, with bent and spread out fingers
4.    Backs of fingers to opposing palms with fingers interlocked
5.    Circular rubbing of left thumb in closed right hand and vice versa
6.    Circular rubbing, backwards and forwards with closed right hand fingertips in left palm and vice versa
 
 It is the need of the hour to make hand hygiene a priority to live a healthy and happy life. The present situation has also called for a change in habits and increased cleanliness