At the end of November, the IPC team held the annual Infection Prevention and Control Study Day here at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital. We caught up with Rachel Powell, Senior Infection Prevention and Control Nurse at ROH on her thoughts from the day.

What is the importance of this annual event?

It is important to keep IPC at the top of everyone’s agenda as it impacts on all aspects of our patients journeys and as our keynote speaker and DIPC Nikki Brockie rightly said, without effective IPC we cannot deliver safe high-quality care and achieve our vision of ‘Less pain. More independence. Life-changing care.’

The annual study day is great as it gives staff the opportunity to learn, update on and discuss themes both impacting us locally at ROH but also topics impacting the wider health economy. Days such as this give staff a chance to network and share ideas.

Our theme for the day was ‘Evolve, Sustain, Excel’ and sessions covered a myriad of different topics including Clostridioides difficile, biofilms and the switch from IV to oral antibiotics. It is vital for patient safety that we continually seek out ways to improve – Evolve, Sustain, Excel!

What are the main challenges IPC is facing?

There are a multitude of challenges facing IPC, possibly too many to list! However, antimicrobial resistance is one that is high on the agenda. This is why antimicrobial stewardship and multidisciplinary teamwork as Gulshada Begum our Lead Antimicrobial Pharmacist discussed is so important for us here at ROH.

Of course now we are in winter, respiratory viruses including Covid-19 and Influenza are on our radar, and as always Clostridioides difficile too.  Dr Pauline Jumaa (Consultant Microbiologist at UHB) presented on how reducing and managing Clostridioides difficile is a multifactorial challenge and highlighted the importance of early detection and environmental decontamination.

Were there any stand-out sessions from the day?

All of the sessions were engaging and well received by the attendees, generating a great deal of discussion and ideas.

The ‘Biofilms in healthcare, What is lurking beneath?’ session presented by Dr Phil Norville (Clinical and scientific director at Gama Healthcare) and ‘Legionella and Pseudomonas, the bacteria, and the risks’ delivered by Neil Edmonds (Water Consultant at Tetra Consulting) generated a lot of discussion around water safety, use or misuse of hand wash basins within clinical areas, importance of water flushing and how waterborne pathogens can be easily spread.

Graham Pike’s (Associate director of Nursing and IPC and clinical sustainability lead at Great Western Hospitals NHS Trust) session on Sustainability and IPC discussed climate change, introduced the concept of ‘yellow washing’ and looked at how IPC and sustainability can co-exist. Again this generated talk of ideas that could be implemented here at ROH.   Dr Abi Jenkins’ (IPC Pharmacist at UHB) IV to Oral switch: a new approach session, highlighted work she had undertaken looking at the switch from IV to oral antibiotics focused on time and workforce capacity along with the impact on carbon footprint.

The day was really well received with lots of positive feedback, including for the cake at lunchtime!! It was fantastic to see so many people attend and their enthusiasm was infectious – we’re looking forward to the IPC study day in 2024 😊