Summary
Sepsis is one of the most common causes of death of patients in Uganda. Many infections that lead to sepsis are contracted within health facilities and can be avoided by implementing Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) measures and making relatively small investments in hospital equipment and infrastructure, such as sinks and washing facilities. K4C has run several capacity building and infrastructural development projects across multiple health facilities in Uganda, covering various aspects of IPC including hand hygiene, antimicrobial stewardship and surgical safety.
Main Activities
Over the last 5 years, K4C has provided running water to more than 30 hospital wards across Uganda, either by fitting new or fixing existing sinks and plumbing systems. Our hand gel project currently provides completely free, locally manufactured, alcohol hand sanitiser to 3 public hospitals in Fort Portal and we sell it at cost price (not for profit) to other charities and private health facilities in the area to ensure sustainability. We have purchased various equipment such as autoclaves (for sterilising medical equipment), rubber mattress covers, delivery beds and drugs trolleys and have invested over £50,000 in renovating hospital and health facilities to reduce infection risks.
Most importantly, our professional nursing, medical and midwifery volunteers have provided invaluable training and mentoring for over 700 local staff across 20 health facilities to build their skills and capacity. Training has covered a wide range of areas including surgical safety (for example implementing the WHO safe surgery checklist), hand hygiene, appropriate cleaning and decontamination of medical equipment, antibiotic prescribing practices, improved operative techniques (for example transverse c-section) amongst many other areas. Our volunteers have also implemented new and existing policies, protocols and guidelines to further support staff clinical practice.
Related Publications
Our project findings have been disseminated at several conferences and workshops, as well as forming the basis of XXX publications which can be accessed (for free) using the links below:
