The learning zone – read the latest
Honest Conversations – Part 1: Beyond the scoreboard: what really determines IPC success?
The football, or more widely known, soccer World Cup has acted as a stimulus to reflect on some work we’ve done on infection prevention and control (IPC) across a range of healthcare settings. Work to strengthen IPC programmes, specifically while understanding what enables progress and success through an approach to: When you look at a soccer match – clips on
The rise of the metaphor
Written by Claire Kilpatrick For over 10 years I have been fascinated with the words, indeed the language, we use in infection prevention and control (IPC). I channelled that interest into a multi country project where we tested some of the commonly used words in hand hygiene improvement, and have both published and presented on this (winning an innovation award,
Solving the behaviour change puzzle – IPC and hand hygiene behaviours and action saves lives
A blog by Claire Kilpatrick, Director at S3 Global Health, Global Health Consultant There are a lot of “activities” that take place within an infection prevention and control (IPC) programme. A significant proportion of these activities are ultimately aimed at behaviour change; ensuring people implement guidance consistently and in a sustained manner to prevent infection. IPC teams lead the way
Do health campaigns sometimes make people anxious?
By Jules Storr “When I asked the doctor if he had cleaned his hands, he looked at me as if I had two heads. I thought I was going to have a heart attack – but I forced myself to ask.” That quote has stayed with me for years. It comes from a patient involved in an early hand hygiene
Infection prevention and control: human-centred, values-led
Not merely the absence of disease I read a book a while ago that reminded me of something I hadn’t thought about in any depth for many years. It recalled the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) definition of health, taken from its Constitution – “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of
Developing your {INSERT NAME} strategy 2026 – are you on trend?
A recent blog post on LinkedIn about strategising resonated with me. The blog was by Nick Bartlett and the title was Hot Trends Aren’t Strategy: How to Lead with Vision in 2026. You can probably guess by the title that it’s not about infection prevention and control (IPC) or even health care, but the following points made me think differently
S3 Global Health – annual report 2025
Sixteen blogs, eight countries, seven key themes and six impactful areas of work. As 2025 draws to a close, we have reflected on what has been widely considered to be one of the most challenging years for many in global health. Yet, despite the difficulties, it has also been a year defined by resilience, creativity, and collective energy. The talent,
Building the healthcare systems of the future: clean care as a core pillar of patient safety and quality
By Jules Storr Origins of Clean Care is Safer Care In 2005, I was part of the original team that launched the first Global Patient Safety Challenge: Clean Care is Safer Care. Led by the World Health Organization (WHO), it was an ambitious and, at the time, unprecedented initiative in the field of patient safety and infection prevention and control (IPC).
Designing the optimal IPC service: more than guidelines, more than systems
By Jules Storr What does it take to build an optimal infection prevention and control (IPC) service? If you asked a room full of IPC professionals – or, for that matter, a large language model like ChatGPT – you’d most likely solicit many confident and diverse answers. Yet beneath the surface of policies, frameworks and technical guidance lies a deeper truth: