Welcome to the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) programme website.

The IPC programme aims to reduce health care acquired infections in New Zealand. It commenced as part of the wider, health sector national quality improvement programme (NQIP). NQIP was one of the programmes initiated by the Quality Improvement Committee (QIC) and implemented by District Health Boards (DHBs).

The QIC has been superseded by the Health Quality and Safety Commission New Zealand (HQSC). HQSC was formally established in legislation by the Government on 1 December 2010. More information on the HQSC can be found at http://www.hqsc.govt.nz/

Infections contracted in health care systems are a significant problem worldwide. At any one time, over 1.4 million people worldwide are suffering from infections acquired in hospital and up to 10 percent of patients admitted to modern hospitals in the developed world acquire one or more infections.

Based on World Health Organization (WHO) programmes; the IPC programme has been strongly influenced by the 2003 report of the Controller and Auditor-General on the management of hospital acquired infections in New Zealand public hospitals. In 2003, it was also estimated that the annual cost to DHBs of treating hospital-acquired infections was approximately $140m.

A specific example is Staphylococcus aureus poststernotomy mediastinitis which has been associated with longer than average length of hospital stay. The mean cost estimate per patient of this post-operative infection is more than $45,000.

In addition to the cost borne by the health system, the cost to patients of contracting a healthcare acquired infection is also significant in terms of prolonged recovery; and delays in returning to employment and other usual activities.

Other significant costs relate to extra assistance, appointments and follow-up needed that are not covered by health or support services. Three IPC projects, led by Auckland DHB, were completed in 2010 and related to:

• Hand Hygiene
• Catheter-related Bloodstream Infections
• Surveillance of Surgical and Procedural Site Infections

More information about each of these projects can be found by following the tabs above to each of the project websites.