The Gibraltar Health Authority will be promoting Glove Awareness from 2nd to 6th May and World Hand Hygiene Day on the 5th May. The main aims of this annual campaign are to promote optimal hand hygiene practices among clinical staff across all GHA and ERS locations, and the use of correct techniques as advised by World Health Organization protocols, known as the WHO 5 Moments. 

This campaign will be led by the GHA Infection Prevention and Control Team:  Practitioners Nathan Lightbody and Sandra Netto, and Infection Control Assistant Keith Ruiz. Every year the IPCT go round hospital wards and ERS interacting with nurses, ensuring adherence to the ‘bare below the elbow’ rules and assessing staff hand washing practices with the aid of a glow box.

They will also be taking photos and videos to be subsequently uploaded on the GHA Facebook and other social media pages.

In terms of glove use in clinical settings, Mr Lightbody said: “From an infection control perspective we prefer that staff wash their hands more than use gloves. Although appropriate glove use is encouraged for certain tasks which need to be risk assessed, we advise that these are not used unnecessarily to avoid additional waste generation and its impact on the environment. There are occasions when they have to use gloves, but they have to risk assess and not use them all the time.”

GHA Director General Kevin McGee said: “The importance of hand washing and observance of ‘bare below the elbow’ protocols by clinical staff cannot be emphasised enough. It is an essential element of infection control in the hospital wards and something we take extremely seriously to protect our patients, avoid unwanted health complications and ensure the best possible outcome.”