Read the latest news, events and projects from our infection prevention and control programme.
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Maramatoru | March 2025
Kia ora and welcome to the latest newsletter from the infection prevention and control (IPC) team at Te Tāhū Hauora Health Quality & Safety Commission.
In this edition - we confirm the timing of the transition of the IPC programmes to Health New Zealand |Te Whatu Ora, hand hygiene compliance rates, links to the latest surveillance updates, upcoming IPC conferences and more!
IPC team
Team members are – Nikki Grae (senior manager), Tanya Jackways and Sue Atkins (IPC specialists) Marie Talbot (programme coordinator), Harini Srinivasan and David Waddell (data analysts) and our two clinical leads, Dr Sally Roberts and Dr Arthur Morris.
You can email the team at ipc@hqsc.govt.nz.
Transition of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Programmes to Health New Zealand |Te Whatu Ora
We can now confirm that the IPC programme will be transitioning from Te Tāhū Hauora to Health NZ by the 30 June 2025, under a carefully staged process.
An IPC team is being established at Health NZ to take over responsibility for the IPC programmes. Their work will be overseen by a new National IPC Committee established by Health NZ.
Reporting requirements will remain the same for districts and the reporting dashboards will also transition to Health NZ, to ensure continuity.
We will continue our quality and safety monitoring role and continue to report the IPC quality and safety markers (QSMs).
Prevention of central-line related BSI
The ‘Guidelines for the prevention of bloodstream infections and other infections associated with the use of intravascular catheters: Part 2: central lines’ is near completion by the World Health Organization.
Part 1 provided guidance on best practices for the prevention of BSIs and other infections associated with peripherally-inserted IV catheters.
Government response to infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance report
In March 2022, the Office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor released ‘Kotahitanga: Uniting Aotearoa against infectious disease and antimicrobial resistance’.
This followed the publication of the New Zealand Antimicrobial Resistance Action Plan in 2017, to enable coordinated, cross-agency national action to minimise the impacts of AMR on New Zealand.
The Ministry of Health has now released a response to the Kotahitanga report, noting that many of the themes and recommendations in it align with, and build on, the Action Plan. The response summarises progress made on a number of the 106 recommendations and highlights more work that needs to be done.
World Hand Hygiene Day: 5 May 2025
Regardless of whether gloves are worn, hand hygiene at the right times and in the right way is still one of the most important measures to protect patients and health workers in healthcare.
The 2025 theme is “It might be gloves. it’s always hand hygiene”.
You can help by:
- promoting optimal hand hygiene practices (using the appropriate technique and according to the WHO 5 Moments) and the times for appropriate glove use within the health care workflow
- raising awareness of the environmental and climate impact of gloves on waste generation and management, especially when used unnecessarily.
Hand hygiene compliance rates
Compliance data Nov 2024 - Feb 2025
You can find district and overall private surgical hospital results for the Nov 2024 – Feb 2025 survey period on our publicly available dashboard.
The dashboard provides additional local and national information, and you can view data over multiple time periods and compliance details down to a district level.
Surveillance updates
Healthcare-associated infection data
Reminder: there is a tile for easy access to healthcare-associated data on our website.
Healthcare-associated Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia HA-SAB
- The electronic healthcare-associated Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (HA-SAB) dashboard is live.
- The dashboard is updated each quarter. The next update is due by 31 March 2025. Contact your IPC team for a link to the dashboard.
- There has been an update to the HA-SAB surveillance guide (May 2022). Minor changes have been made to clarify wording - there is no change to criteria.
- Read the Guide to the surveillance of healthcare-associated Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (HA-SAB) on our website.
- Access other resources on HA-SAB surveillance on our website.
Surgical site infection improvement programme (SSIIP)
Remember, there is a suite of guidance documents on cardiac and orthopaedic SSI surveillance and investigations.
ICYMI: Journal article on healthcare-associated infections in New Zealand
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in public hospitals are estimated to have cost the health care system $955 million in 2021 and to have caused more disability than road traffic crashes.
A paper produced by Te Tāhū Hauora on the annual economic burden of HAIs in terms of cost, deaths and disability was published in the Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology journal in October 2024 – ‘The burden of healthcare-associated infections in New Zealand public hospitals 2021’.
Infection Prevention and Control Conferences
Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control Conference
16-19 November 2025
Hobart, Tasmania
The theme is “The Circles of Influence: Evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence”.
The call for abstracts closes on 30 May.
Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology APIC25
16-18 June 2025
Phoenix, USA
This year’s conference will be a hybrid event. Attendees have the option to attend in person or virtually.
Important dates
- 31 March 2025: Publication of quarterly QSM, SSIIP dashboards and HA-SAB dashboard
- 1 April 2025: Quarterly SSIIP investigation summary forms for Jan-Mar 2025 due
- 30 April 2025: HA-SAB surveillance Jan-Mar 2025 data due
- 30 April 2025: SSIIP Oct-Dec 2024 data due
- June 2025: SSIIP investigation meeting, date to be confirmed
- 10 June 2025: Hand Hygiene Network meeting
- 30 June 2025: End of hand hygiene audit period
Get in touch
HHNZ questions, requests, information: hhnz@hqsc.govt.nz
SSIIP questions, data-related enquiries: ssiip@hqsc.govt.nz
General IPC questions, requests, information: ipc@hqsc.govt.nz
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