Doctors and nurses are being urged to use germ-killing gel before treating patients at Oxfordshire's hospitals to help stamp out infections on the wards.
The alcohol-based handrub has been installed next to each of the 1,400 beds at Oxford's John Radcliffe, Churchill, and Radcliffe Infirmary, and The Horton, Banbury, so that staff can quickly clean their hands to prevent passing on bugs. The project has cost £7,000.
About eight per cent of patients pick up an infection after being admitted to one of the four hospitals, run by the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust.
The germs, including the superbug MRSA, prey on weak patients and are often resistant to antibiotics.
Infection control manager Julie Storr said: "Managers have supported the project because it does reduce infection within the hospitals.
"Every patient who catches an infection spends an average of 11 days extra in hospital, costing an awful lot of money and taking up beds."
A campaign urging doctors and nurses to wash their hands regularly was launched last year but the new gel could be more successful and reduce hospital-acquired infections by half.
Ms Storr said: "It's in a pump-action bottle and sits in a little bracket which can be attached to the end of the bed or the locker.
"Staff just squirt a bit on to their hands, rub it in and it kills germs. They don't have to leave the patient, go to a sink or dry their hands.
"It also has skin softeners and should reduce the number of staff skin complaints. When you wash your hands all the time, it dries your skin but the gel softens it."
In children's wards, the gel will be put on high shelves to stop young patients get hold of it.
Staff are still being encouraged to wash their hands. The infection control team has replaced old-fashioned scratchy paper towels with softer, disposable ones.
The trust does not have to record hospital infection rates at the momen, but will have to start listing the data from April next year.
Miss Storr said the success of the new alcohol handrub would be monitored.
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