Staff at Mater Dei's Intensive Therapy Unit won the first edition of the hospital's Infection Control Award, organised by the hospitals' Infection Control Committee.

The committee, whose role is to appraise Infection Control Standards and provide related training, congratulated the nursing, medical and paramedic staff of the ITU for their achievements in the past year.

In their evaluation, The Infection Control Committee noted that all health care professionals appreciated the vulnerability of patients who needed intensive care and how prone to infections they were.

It said it was therefore reassuring to see that ITU not only showed the highest hospital levels of hand hygiene over the past year but also consistently improved its judicious use of antibiotics and introduced new work practices for safer management of intravenous and other devices.

In so doing, it reduced overall bacteraemia rates in ITU patients by more than 50 per cent in just three years, to surpass the European average.

The committee noted that the fact that the ITU has been MRSA bacteraemia free for more than 500 days is a testament to a dedication to address the challenge of hospital infections and a willingness to work as a team to obtain improvement.

The award was presented during an Infection Control Conference held at Mater Dei Hospital. During the presentation ceremony, Medical Ward 3 and Neuro-Surgical Ward were also presented with the 2011 Best Hand Hygiene Awards.