A national survey of infection control practice by New Zealand anaesthetists

Anaesthetists have an important role in preventing nosocomial infection. Failures in this role have resulted in critical reports in the media. We ascertained the current practices of New Zealand anaesthetists relating to infection control, by distributing a questionnaire to all 450 anaesthetists practising in New Zealand. Sixty-one percent responded. Just over half the respondents had never read their hospital policy on infection control and over a third had never read the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists policy document on infection control. It was found that 3.4% rarely changed gloves if they became contaminated and 2.2% occasionally used the same syringe to administer drugs to more than one patient. The majority (86.3%) of respondents split one drug ampoule between more than one patient, 41.3% used multidose vials for more than one patient and 2.2% used pre-filled syringes for more than one patient. The majority complied with the College infection control policy for performing arterial cannulation (85.7%), central venous cannulation (77.4%) and regional blockade (65.1%). Respondents ranked the overall risk of the anaesthetist contributing to the transmission of infectious agents on a scale from 0 to 10 (10=highest risk). The median response was 7, the modal response was 10 and interquartile range was 4 to 8. There was a high level of awareness of the risks of contributing to cross-infection inherent in anaesthesia, most anaesthetists reporting that they followed recommended guidelines in this context. However, these data suggest more effort is required to promote compliance with appropriate guidelines.