NHS Ayrshire & Arran regards the prevention and control of infection as a key priority. The protection of patients, staff and visitors from healthcare-associated infection (HAI) in hospital and the wider community is of paramount importance.
The most important people in preventing and controlling infection are our staff. We care for our patients in a clean environment, using clean equipment with clean hands.
If you’re visiting our hospitals, you also have an important role to play. Please follow basic hygiene rules when visiting patients in hospital.
Hygiene rules
- Don’t visit a patient in hospital if you are feeling unwell or have an infection, such as flu or a heavy cold.
- Don’t visit a patient in hospital if you have suffered from vomiting or diarrhoea. Wait until 48 hours after symptoms have stopped.
- Don’t visit if anyone else in your household is suffering from diarrhoea or vomiting.
- Don’t touch dressings, wounds, drips, catheters or any other equipment round the bed.
- Don’t use the patients’ toilets.
- Do wash your hands regularly with soap and water, especially after going to the toilet. Use the hand washing facilities or alcohol hand rub before and after entering the ward.
- Do limit the amount of items brought into hospital. These can cause clutter and make cleaning of the ward difficult.
- Do stick to the visiting times and the number of visitors allowed.