Hand hygiene: Hospital Authority Chief Infection Control Officer Dr Seto Wing-hong, Chief Executive Shane Solomon, WHO representative Professor Didier Pittet, authority Chairman Anthony Wu and Director (Quality & Safety) Dr Leung Pak-yin launch the hand-hygiene campaign.

A programme promoting good hand-hygiene among healthcare professionals has been launched in public hospitals.

The Hospital Authority is encouraging staff to clean their hands with alcohol hand-rub to cut the risk of cross infection and improve patient safety.

Speaking at today's launch authority Chief Executive Shane Solomon said the campaign is about creating a new culture among healthcare colleagues.

Hong Kong is the first to launch the programme among six World Health Organisation evaluation sites. It signed a pledge to introduce the programme in 2006 trying it in four public hospitals seeing the infection rate drop as the hand hygiene compliance rate grew.