The cash-strapped Vancouver Island Health Authority is spending $130,000 to teach front-line medical workers how to wash their hands properly.

For the next two months, seven educators will teach refresher courses in Vancouver Island hospitals and community-care facilities, making sure that staff know how to effectively use soap and sanitizing gels to kill germs. 

Proper handwashing in hospitals and other health-care facilities is seen as key to preventing the spread of infections.
(CBC)

While some employees have criticized the program as a waste of money, B.C. Health Minister George Abbott defended the move, saying it's not money going down the drain.

"No, not at all, I think it's a very good expenditure of funds. Infections in hospitals are a huge issue. Handwashing is the very best preventive measure to take in terms of preventing the spread of infections.

"It's more than just handwashing lessons. It's all about being aware of just how critical it is if we want to stop the spread of infections."

Abbott said proper handwashing can save the health-care system 'buckets of money.'

A recent investigation by CBC Marketplace showed some doctors and other health professionals are lax when it comes to hospital hygiene.

Marketplace found that one in nine hospital patients gets infections from germs they pick up during their care, and about 8,000 Canadians die of hospital infections every year.

The program aired secretly shot video of a Vancouver doctor touching a table in a contagious person's room and not washing his hands after, and a nurse who changed the bandages on an open wound and did not wash her hands.