The Imperial New Delhi joined hands with the Hotel Association of India (HAI) to observe the 6th HAI Hand Hygiene Day by creating awareness among both associates and guests about the importance of hand hygiene.
This year, the overarching theme for World Hand Hygiene Day by W.H.O was “Clean care for all – it's in your hands”. It focused on the achievement of universal health coverage (UHC), which includes access to quality essential health care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all. Hand hygiene is critical to achieve UHC, as it has a direct impact on quality of care and patient safety across all levels of the health system.
Incorporating the same message, The Imperial conducted the following activities to inculcate greater responsibility towards hand hygiene by engaging associates and creating substantial awareness about the issue:
1. The Imperial associates along with Vijay Wanchoo, Sr. Exec VP and GM, took the following pledge on the occasion of Hand Hygiene Day : ‘We pledge to inculcate best practices in the hotel to ensure the highest standards of hygiene.”
2. Screened a short film on the importance of hand hygiene in the employee cafeteria.
3. Displayed responsive poster with the messages “Clean care for all – it's in your hands” across departments to promote WHO’s theme for the same.
4. Room-screen alert for the guests highlighting the importance of hand hygiene.
5. Organised a poster making and slogan writing competition for employees to highlight the key message.
6. An easy to use hand sanitiser was given to all the drivers, handling airport transfers for guests and educating them to stay away from germs causing disease
7. Sanitisers were kept in all restaurants which were made available on request to guests
8. Hand signage displayed in guest areas along with sanitizers highlighting the importance of clean hands
9. All in-house activities were promoted on the hotel’s official social media platforms
Vijay Wanchoo, Sr. Executive VP & GM, The Imperial New Delhi said, “The Imperial New Delhi takes pride in joining hands with HAI and supporting WHO theme, again this year for promoting World Hand Hygiene Day — 'Clean care for all – it's in your hands'. Hand hygiene is vital to a healthy lifestyle which is why we at The Imperial strive to maintain best practices and my aim is to promote initiatives like these so they reach the grass root level. When we are operating in the service industry it becomes our prerogative to prioritize health in every way which is why the message of clean hands as the foundation of a healthy system is reiterated every year in the hotel. Like last year, this year too, we had organized focused activities to emphasize on keeping hand hygiene at all times and shall continue to do so in near future to make our country aware, safe and healthy”.
HAI intends to create awareness among the local communities, schools, orphanages, public institutions, guests, visitors and employees of hotels and the people who handle food by including them in a series of activities under the program. It aims to spread the importance of washing hands with soap and water or using a hand sanitiser as the simplest and most cost-effective way of promoting community health and well-being.