NCID IPC Outreach Team receives NHG Team Recognition Award (COVID-19) at NHG Awards 2022

The NCID Infection Prevention & Control (IPC) Outreach Team received the NHG Team Recognition Award (COVID-19) at the recent NHG Awards 2022. The NCID IPC Outreach Team was one of the two teams from NCID who were recognised for their contributions to the fight against COVID-19.

NCID has been at the centre of COVID-19 pandemic management and response since the start of the pandemic in early 2020. One of the areas that the centre has been actively involved in is providing IPC advice, consultation for IPC measures and training. The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a heightened call for greater focus on IPC in hospitals, nursing homes and community sites such as dormitories, airports, and hotels. The NCID IPC Outreach Team comprising of medical, nursing and operations support staff was formed in 2020 to extend its expertise to the community.

The team offered its services in setting up COVID-19 facilities (e.g. Swab Isolation Facilities, Community Care Facilities). Efforts were made to reach out to non-healthcare sectors (e.g. dormitories, care homes) to conduct training on the donning and doffing of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and mask-fitting sessions to protect staff working in high-risk areas. The team also collaborated with the Ministry of Health and aviation organisations to develop an IPC framework for aviation workers. The team highlighted and placed greater focus on specific high-risk groups such as caregivers, cleaners and residents of intermediate and long-term care settings to ensure that infection control, housekeeping tasks and cleaning frequency are well-managed and monitored. On-site visits to community partners were conducted to understand existing workflows and the team made ground assessments based on IPC principles. Expert inputs on IPC practices based on local and international best practice guidelines were provided and guidance was also given to community partners to develop their IPC and PPE frameworks by applying IPC principles.

Through the efforts of the NCID IPC Outreach Team, our community partners have learnt to apply the IPC principles to develop their IPC framework for implementation. An IPC framework has been developed by one of the aviation organisations and subsequently implemented in phases across the airport terminals.

Q&A with NCID IPC Outreach Team

What did the team hope to achieve?

What we hoped to achieve was to prevent infection amongst the staff and in the community using various ways. One of the ways is by training staff on the donning and doffing of PPE and N95 mask fitting. It is important that they are trained before they actually start work so that they know how to keep themselves safe.

The Operations team also supported the medical and nursing teams during the peak of the outbreak by coordinating and liaising with external community partners to organise sessions for them to share their IPC knowledge and expertise.

What were the key success factors of the team?

It would be good teamwork, not just amongst the IPC Outreach Team, but within the whole of NCID. The IPC Outreach Team worked very closely to plan and coordinate the training for our community partners. Whenever we were in the community, there were others who were covering our wards and our patients. It was the whole of NCID approach to pandemic response.

Another factor of success is the readiness that we had built up and training we had received before the pandemic that enabled us to deliver IPC?guidance and advice promptly.

Could you share the most important takeaway about the team and its work?

We were prepared, we were ready, and we responded. With strong teamwork, we were able to value add to our work.

What innovative approaches did the team use in the face of COVID?

Being innovative was not an option for us, it was a must. As we were dealing with people in the community, we needed to leverage the technologies that they were already using for IPC intervention and training. That’s where we had to do it differently in this pandemic.

Using WhatsApp and other communication channels enabled us to advise the community on the use of appropriate IPC measures and implementation. This real-time IPC problem identification and solution implementation is probably something new in this pandemic and it was great that we were able to do it.

Members of the NCID IPC Outreach Team

Infectious Diseases: Adj Asst Prof Kalisvar Marimuthu

Nursing: Dr Margaret Soon Mei Ling, Ms Lim Voon Ping, Ms Tovelle Loh Kyun Yen, Ms Paige Phoon Long Yoke

Operations: Ms Pang Jia Xin, Ms Teok Chew Hui ?

About the NHG Awards

The NHG Awards recognise the dedicated healthcare professionals across National Healthcare Group for their outstanding contributions to patient care, clinical practice, training, education, and research in public healthcare.

The NHG Team Recognition Award (COVID-19) recognises exemplary teams for their contributions to the fight against COVID-19.