Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) programme transitioning to Health NZ

New Zealand’s Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) programme has been led by Te Tāhū Hauora Health Quality and Safety Commission in partnership with others since its inception in 2011. IPC is a vital part of a well-functioning health system, preventing patients and health workers from being harmed by avoidable infections.

The establishment of Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora (Health NZ) as a single, nationwide organisation has created an opportunity for national IPC services and programmes to be managed in-house by Health NZ. The IPC programme will be transitioning to Health NZ by 30 June 2025, under a carefully staged process.

Health NZ will be building on the work done by our IPC team to support the ongoing delivery of best practice IPC approaches across the country.

Key achievements to date include:

·       Three national quality improvement programmes: Surgical Site Infection Improvement Programme, Hand Hygiene New Zealand, and Healthcare-associated Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (HA-SAB) surveillance.

·       Significant reductions in orthopaedic and cardiac surgical site infections (SSIs) have been achieved. Approximately 188 orthopaedic SSIs have been avoided since 2016 and 226 cardiac SSIs have been avoided since 2018, resulting in $7.5 million and $9 million in avoided costs, respectively.

·       The national hand hygiene compliance rate has improved by 35 percent and has consistently been above 80 percent since 2015.

·       The national healthcare-associated infection point prevalence survey (PPS) led by Te Tāhū Hauora put the annual economic burden of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in New Zealand at approximately $955 million. This survey and subsequent reports will help guide Health NZ as it takes the programme forward. 

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 Health NZ National IPC Committee.

Reporting requirements will remain the same for districts, and the reporting dashboards will transition to Health NZ, to ensure continuity. The stakeholder database will also transition to Health NZ.

 We will continue our quality and safety monitoring role and continue to report the IPC quality and safety markers (QSMs).