Infection control priority for Health Ministry – Dr Anthony

…as training continues across sector

Limiting the spread of COVID-19 is a key factor of exiting the pandemic successfully – a feat which has been taken on by the Health Ministry through infection control at health institutions.
This was the position shared by Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony during Monday’s coronavirus update. He explained that good practices can limit the spread of the virus and as a result, health authorities have been working closely with all medical units and personnel.
“One of the things that we have been doing is to do infection control because COVID-19 obviously is an infectious disease and therefore, if we can have good infection control practices in our institutions, then we can limit the spread,” the Minister highlighted.
The Ministry would have conducted training in 2020 to familiarise professionals in the sector with the importance of these practices. This, Dr Anthony expressed, will be an ongoing initiative in better equipping the health system to deal with the new virus.
“We had done some training last year. We did another round where we sent out staff to train people in every region, to be able to teach infection control to the rest of the personnel in the region and; to observe and make sure that these practices are put in place. This is going to be an ongoing effect because some people tend to be complacent and so forth. So, we have to keep reinforcing that.”
Training is also offered in various areas, depending on the guidelines and operating procedures which the health system is expected to follow. As it is updated, doctors and nurses receive training.
“We have also been looking at how we can upgrade staff to get a better understanding of issues relating to COVID-19…Those, from time to time, we would run virtual sessions. When we design new guidelines for the treatment of COVID-19, as we update those guidelines by our expert committee, we then [have] training for all the doctors involved in COVID management,” he indicated.
Another branch of the training relates to the treatment of patients, part of which pertains to the proper operation of medical equipment. After ventilators were dispatched to every administrative region, personnel were trained to use them.
“Treatment is evolving as we learn more about how the new medications would work with particular disease and at what stage it’s more appropriate. New things are becoming available. As we get this information, we update our guidelines and we work to update our medical staff…It is important that we train the doctors and nurses to use the machines and to be able to manage these patients based on the protocols that we have,” the Minister acknowledged. (G12)