Catheter Care Awareness Week Returns and widens its reach

This year’s Catheter Care Awareness Week (19-23 June 2017) built on the successful campaign from 2016, empowering more patients and professionals to practice the safer use of urinary catheters.

A significant proportion of urinary catheter use is not justified by clinical need, and long-term catheterisation carries the risk of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), complications (haemorrhage, blockage, trauma) and has detrimental effects on continence status and dependency level. CAUTIs also contribute to recurrent Emergency Department admissions, prolonged hospitalistion, re-admissions and increased mortality.

Last year, the Health Innovation Network’s Catheter Care Awareness Campaign contributed to a 30 per cent reduction in CAUTI in south London. This year saw more engagement from around the UK, with Aneurin Bevan University Health Board in south Wales holding a week long set of seminars and stalls. The Health Board were first made aware of our Catheter Care work because of the 2016 Catheter Care Awareness Week Campaign on Twitter. Hospitals in Surrey and Bath also contributed, sharing valuable resources and training materials, and Charlie Adler, Darzi Fellow at Kent Surrey & Sussex AHSN, shared an eleven episode mini-series, ‘The Secret Life of Catheters’. Victoria Coghlan, Urology Nurse Specialist for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board Continence Service said: “Thank you for all your support with the awareness week. As a team we thoroughly enjoyed taking time to promote better catheter care for our patients. We hope to continue this inspirational work that you started.”

The week was also fully embraced by our south London partners. Across our membership, 21 events, study days and workshops were attended by over 1800 healthcare professionals and 800 patients, and supported by 13 urology industry partners.

Lewisham Nurses with their Catheter Care Pledges and Passports

To find any of the discussions and resources that have been shared, please search for #cathetercare on Twitter, or email hin.southlondon@nhs.net.

For more information about the HIN’s catheter care work and how you can be involved, please email eric.barrett@nhs.net