Gift Mashoko

Today Zimbabwe joined the rest of the world in the commemorating Hand Hygiene Day which is running under the theme, “Clean care for all, it’s in your hands.”

Speaking to hundreds of delegates today at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals (PGH) Harare, Principal Director in Curative Services in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Mr Sydney Makarawo highlighted that the World Health Organisation (WHO) came up with tools which Zimbabwe adopted as it assesses the Infection Prevention Control (IPC) of which Parirenyatwa was also assessed.

“WHO has developed tools for countries and facilities to assess their status of IPC and therefore identify areas of improvement. On a facility level, the use of these tools gives institutions a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their IPC and hand hygiene programmes, and provides concrete actions to address existing gaps.

These tools allow institutions to improve their IPC practices and policies in a concrete and measurable way at their own speed and in their own context. I am glad that Parirenyatwa Group of Hospital was one of the facilities that was assessed,” he said.

Mr Makarawo added, “WHO calls on everyone to be inspired by the global movement to achieve universal health coverage, that is, achieving better health and well-being for all people of all ages, including financial risk protection, access to quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.”

Mr Makarawo applauded Parirenyatwa hospital pharmacy for producing alcohol hand rub.

“We have the capacity to produce alcohol hand rub at facility level and I would like to applaud Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals pharmacy for this and they are willing to share their expertise with other institutions. I encourage the building of private public partnerships (PPP) with such industries that produce alcohol so that alcohol hand rub can be universally accessible by all health workers, patients and visitors within our health facilities, thus improving our patient outcomes and ensuring our health workers are protected and the general community at large,” he said.

Speaking at the same event, CEO of PGH, Mr Edson Mundenda highlighted that Parirenyatwa Hospital is one of the few in the country that is able to manufacture its own alcohol hand rub according to WHO standards which is distributed within the hospital.

This resonates well with President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s continued call for the nation to observe the first Friday of each month as the national clean-up day. A clean nation is a healthy nation and no investment to a nation that is not cared for.