Infection Control

Purpose

This annual statement will be generated each year in in accordance with the requirements of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 Code of Practice on the prevention and control of infections and related guidance. The report will be published on the organisation’s website and will include the following summary:

• Any infection transmission incidents and any action taken (these will have been reported in accordance with our significant event procedure)
• Details of any infection control audits carried out and actions undertaken
• Details of any risk assessments undertaken for the prevention and control of infection
• Details of staff training
• Any review and update of policies, procedures and guidelines 

Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) lead

The joint leads for infection prevention and control at Langley House are Michele Hotchkiss, Assistant Practitioner in our nursing team (Clinical) and Sam Boseley, Reception Supervisor/Victoria Hamer, Practice Manager (Non-Clinical).

a. Infection transmission incidents (significant events)

• Significant events involve examples of good practice as well as challenging events.
• Positive events are discussed at meetings to allow all staff to be appraised in areas of best practice.
• Negative events are managed by the staff member who either identified or was advised of any potential shortcoming. This person will complete a Significant Event Analysis (SEA) form which commences an investigation process to establish what can be learnt and to indicate changes that might lead to future improvements.
• All significant events are reviewed and discussed at several meetings each month. Any learning points are cascaded to all relevant staff where an action plan, including audits or policy review, may follow.
• In the past year, there have been 0 significant events raised which related to infection control. There have also been 0 complaints made regarding cleanliness or infection control.

b. Infection prevention audit and actions

• We complete an annual audit for both Langley House and our Bosham Surgery and infection control leads are responsible for dealing with any action points and trying to work around the myriad of problems presented by a listed building. This year, our actions have included raising points with our external cleaning contractor regarding disposable cleaning cloths and mop heads, ensuring wall mounted sharps bins at Bosham and redecorating consulting rooms at Langley House and Bosham Surgery.
• We have also conducted audits on PPE usage, handwashing and aseptic technique amongst our clinical staff.

c. Risk assessments

• Risk assessments are carried out so that any risk is minimised and made to be as low as is reasonably practicable. In the last year, we carried out COSHH risk assessment including sharps usage and digitalised our staff vaccination risk assessment.

d. Training

• In addition to staff being involved in risk assessments and significant events, all staff and contractors receive IPC induction training on commencing their post. Thereafter, all staff receive refresher training online annually. Our clinical infection control lead attends NHS Sussex link network meetings. We work with the NHS Sussex infection control team for any infection control surveillance queries/contribute to root cause analysis.

e. Policies and procedures

• Policies relating to infection prevention and control are available to all staff and are reviewed and updated annually. Additionally, all policies are amended on an ongoing basis as per current advice, guidance and legislation changes.