Infection prevention and control services are well established in New Zealand hospitals. There are currently three national programs which are expected to be implemented within all 20 District Health Boards. Successful delivery of the programs requires adequately resourced and skilled teams.

Improvements in healthcare waste disposal could considerably reduce environmental and financial impacts. A waste audit was conducted to gain a greater understanding of approaches for waste disposal behaviour change. The audit showed 41% clinical waste in clinical waste bins with a questionable minor improvement post staff education. This demonstrates that multiple approaches are needed for sustainable waste management.

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) colonisations serve as a reservoir and increase the risk of patients developing an infection with VRE leading to treatment difficulties. The aim of this study was to identify the incidence of VRE colonisation in ICU and patient outcomes as a result of acquisition of VRE in ICU. Having determined the acquisition rates in ICU the question was raised as to whether implementation of chlorhexidine washes would be effective; however, this has not yet been tried at The Canberra Hospital.

Reusable medical devices are sterilized and stored in hospitals until required. Expiry dates are allocated to commercially sterilized devices and should be followed. For devices sterilized in hospital-based Central Sterilization Departments, many factors will determine allocation of expiry date (time-related shelf life) or no expiry date with re-sterilization of device only if exposed to an event (event-related sterility).