Infection control teams receive awards

The winners of the 2005/2006 Oxoid Infection Control Team of the Year Awards recently received their prizes at the magnificent Crewe Hall Hotel, Crewe, UK

Four teams - Craigavon Area Hospital Group Trust, UK (first prize £5000), Banso Baptist Hospital, Cameroon (second prize £1000), Health Protection Agency, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust UK (third prize £500) and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK (highly commended) were presented with their prizes by Ali Ball, vice president sales and marketing, Oxoid and the awards judges, at an awards dinner held to honour the teams' achievements.

Commenting on this year's entries, Ali Ball explained: "When we launched the Oxoid Infection Control Award scheme three years ago, we knew that microbiology laboratories and infection control teams were facing some immense challenges with little recognition or appreciation of their fundamentally important work.

"But when this year's entries arrived, the achievements of the teams that entered, and the challenges they faced, both shocked and amazed us at the same time".

The winning entries demonstrated positive improvements in diverse areas - from reductions in hospital acquired infections, savings in antibiotic budgets, enhanced cleanliness in the hospital environment, improved sharps management, better compliance with hand hygiene policies, improved internal communications and training to the introduction of infection control ward accreditation programmes.

Commitment to team working and a degree of creativity was also evident in the winning entries.

You can read more about each team and what they did to impress the judges in the next issue of Oxoid's Clinical Setting Standards newsletter, which also includes details of how your team can enter the 2006/2007 Oxoid Infection Control Team of the Year Awards.

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