Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Hospital infections were becoming a common problemthat required more focus from the healthcare sector, Minister of Health NguyenThi Kim Tien said.

Tien was speaking at a conference on September 30 aboutefforts to control infections at healthcare facilities, especially in emergencydepartments.

Hospital infections were one of the main threats to patientsafety, and had contributed to an increase in fatalities, treatment times, theuse of antibiotics and costs, she said.

They also caused overloading and reduced the quality andreputations of hospitals. Some complications caused by hospital infections wereworse than the original problems that patients were admitted with.

In order to control these infections, the Ministry of Healthhas taken measures to tighten control at healthcare facilities, includingissuing regulations and providing professional supervision.

According to Tien, some controls had already been put inplace, including supervision of hand hygiene and infection controls to improvehospital sanitation and proactively prevent epidemics. However, sheadmitted it was still a serious problem. 

Speaking at the conference, Dr Luong Ngoc Khue, director ofthe ministry's Medical Examination and Treatment Management Department, saidthe results of a survey conducted at 558 hospitals this year showed that 53.9 percentof instruments in anesthesia departments were not being disinfected properly,31.2 percent of facilities did not have microbiological monitoring systems.

Meanwhile, 56.1 percent of instruments in emergencydepartments were not being disinfected; 21 percent of hospitals did not haveinfection control departments; and about 22.6 percent of sanitation staff hadnot received training on infection control.
Assessing this situation, the minister said that first ofall, some heads of health facilities were not fully aware of the role andimportance of infection control. 

Moreover, most health staff did not receive training and somedepartments faced staff shortages.

Hospitals did not have policies to attract and encouragededicated and professional people to work in infection control, Tien added.

Some hospitals were unable to provide comprehensive care dueto a lack of manpower, so it was down to family members to care for patients,which also led to more infections, according to the minister.

To deal with such situation, Tien has instructed leaders ofhealthcare facilities to commit to properly and fully implement legalregulations and professional guidance on infection control issued by theMinistry of Health.

Hospitals needed to arrange skilled personnel, upgradeinfrastructure and provide the necessary equipment to implement infectioncontrol.

At the same time, health facilities needed to enhance checksand supervision of hospital infections, and monitor compliance with infectioncontrol practices among health workers, students, patients and family members.

Vietnam has established an infection surveillance system atsix hospitals. The ministry plans to pilot the system at 12 other facilitiesand transfer technology to supervise hospital infections at a further 30hospitals./.