Whiteparish Surgery - Infection Control Annual Statement 2023

 

Purpose:

The annual statement will be generated each year in April in accordance with The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Code of Practice on the prevention and control of infections and related guidance) This requires every Primary Care Provider to have an Infection Prevention & Control Lead.

The IPC Lead is responsible for the local infection prevention & control programme. This involves identifying infection risks to the practice, its patients, and staff, and taking responsibility for implementing and monitoring actions to manage and reduce those risks.

 

Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Lead

 

Lynn Walworth (Nurse Practitioner) is IPC lead and undertakes training on a regular basis attending IPC meetings/updates and webinars organised by the NHS Bath and Northeast Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board; there are opportunities to attend ad hoc drop-in sessions available online on a regular basis

LW attended Primary Care IPC Leads network meeting in September 2022 which included:

 

• Health care associated infections data and figures
• Flu vaccine and covid vaccine update
• IPC considerations for restarting Spirometry
• Staff isolation and risk assessments

 

The IPC lead is supported by Sarah Trompetas (Practice Manager) and Ysanne Duke (HCA) is responsible for Legionella monitoring; face to face training on this is repeated bi-annually.

 

Infection Transmission incidents (Significant events)

 

Significant events (SEA) (which may involve examples of good practice as well as challenging events) are investigated in detail to see what can be learnt and to improve practice - these are reviewed on a regular basis at clinical and staff meetings; there have been no SEA raised that relate to infection control.

 

Infection Prevention Audit & Actions

 

The IPC annual audit is completed using a process improvement tool produced by Practice Index which produces standard statements with guidance for improved practice; Other more regular audits are completed on an ad hoc basis including an Environmental Cleanliness tool as well as hand washing audits and Safe handling & disposal of sharps audits.

 

The 2022 annual IPC audit was reviewed - the following had been implemented:

 

• All waste bins in clinical areas were checked as per the standard & any where foot pedals were malfunctioning were replaced
• All disposable curtains were replaced as out of date
• Damaged chairs were replaced.
• New hard flooring installed in Room 1
• New hard flooring installed in Room 8
• Laminated posters added to all clinical areas as visual aid for donning & doffing personal protective equipment (PPE)

 

Over the past three years the Covid 19 guidance for services and health care settings have been laid down by Public Health England and these have been adhered to and amended as the pandemic evolved and all Infection prevention and control recommendations have been cascaded to staff as they have been issued. 

 

A further annual audit was completed in June 2023 with these recommendations:

 

• General de-clutter in some specific areas
• Housekeeping deep clean suggested in non-clinical areas
• More regular clinical audits to be undertaken.
• Review staff immunisations
• Ensure that IPC related topics are regular agenda items at various practice meetings

 

No infections were reported for patients who had minor surgery in the practice

 

Audits of handwashing and safe handling and disposal of sharps are undertaken on an ad hoc basis

The practice plan to undertake more regular audits in the coming year including minor surgery outcomes audit and further hand hygiene audits

 

Risk assessments

Legionella (water) Risk assessment -the practice has conducted/reviewed its water safety to ensure the water supply does not pose a risk to patients, visitors, or staff. 

 

Immunisation: As a practice we ensure that all staff are up to date with their Hepatitis B immunisations and offered any occupational health vaccinations applicable to their role (eg seasonal flu, Covid) We take part in the NHS England National Immunisation programmes for patients and offer vaccinations in house and via home visits and to all nursing home residents registered at the practice.

 

Training

All online staff training is recorded on Teamnet and monitored by Admin Lead.  Level 1 and 2 ilearn course is designed for all primary care staff to assist with their understanding of the importance of infection control procedures and how the information should be applied.  Staff are reminded via notification and email before the course is due and is repeated annually.

 

Whole team Clinical Governance sessions offer an opportunity to update all staff training on COSHH, Universal Precautions including appropriate PPE, hand hygiene and management of inoculation injury.  The use of a light box to demonstrate good hand hygiene techniques has been implemented with reassuring results

IPC Lead attends regular updates and the IPC forum held by ICB and other outside training organisations

 

Policies

Most guidance on Infection Control & Prevention is based on the National Manual ( NHS England) which had regular updates – available via Teamnet

 

Some IPC policies are in hard copy format in a file in the Treatment room -these have been adopted from an IPC website which provide free evidence-based resources for general practice

 

In addition, there are procedures and policies filed on the Y drive under CQC/evidence and CQC/ SAFE; These are all in the process of being updated and transferred to Teamnet

 

Review

The IPC Lead and the practice manager are responsible for reviewing and producing the annual statement

 

June 2023