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Annual Infection Prevention and Control Statement

 

Purpose

This annual statement will be generated each year in April in accordance with the requirements of Health and Social Care ACT 2008 Code of Practice on the prevention and controls of infections and related guidance. Our report will be published on the Practice website and will include the following.

  1. Any infection transmission incidents and any action taken. These will be reported in line with our Significant event policy 
  2. Details of any infection control audits and action plans with actions undertaken
  3. Details of any risk assessments carried out 
  4. Details of staff training 
  5. Details of any updated policies, procedures and guidance 
 

Infection Prevention and Control Leads

  • Molly Sargeant (Infection Prevention and Control Lead)
  • Dean Dorsett (Senior Partner)
  • Mark Hatcher (Commercial Administrator)
  • Helen Kearney (Projects Officer)

Infection prevention and control incidents

Significant events involve examples of good practice as well as challenging events. 

Incidents are reported to Molly Sargeant via Practice Manager. They are then reviewed at our clinical meeting or senior management meeting. Any shared learning will be shared with the Practice staff. 

In the past year, there has been 0. Significant events relating to infection control. There has also been 0 complaints made regarding cleanliness or infection control. We have had no outbreaks of infections.

 

Infection prevention audit and actions

Our practice audit was carried out 15th August 2024 which resulted in us being scored at 95% the list of actions is below

  1. Colour coded disposable aprons to be available to cleaning staff.
  2. Changing carpets in clinical areas within a maximum of 10 years.
  3. Ensuring staff are up to date with IPC training.
  4. Dates for employee's vaccination status.
  5. Sinks in clinical rooms not meeting IPC standards to be changed within a maximum of 10 years.

All of the above have all been completed. We aim to carry out another audit 2025.

Risk assessments

We carry out risk assessments so any risk is minimised to be as low as possible. In the last year the following risk assessment has been carried out

  1. Legionella (Water) Risk Assessment: The practice has conducted its water safety risk assessment to ensure that the water supply does not pose a risk to patients, visitors or staff. (monthly)
  2. Sharps Management for non-clinical staff – Safe handling of sharps bins (quarterly)
  3. External Cleaning company – Standard of cleaning (monthly)

In the next year the following risk assessments will be reviewed

  1. Hand hygiene audit
  2. External cleaning company – Standards of cleaning
  3. Clinical waste audit - Safe labelling of clinical waste bags

Staff training

Each staff member is required to complete the following training:

  1. Infection control Clinical/Non Clinical depending on their role this is via Bluestream and part of our mandatory training
  2. Infection prevention booklets which staff have to answer questions. Molly reviews the answers and lets staff know their pass rate
  3. ICB provide additional IPC training via online and in person events

Policies and procedures

  • IPC guidance NHS cleaning standards 2021 
  • IPC manual 2022
 

Antibiotic Monitoring

At Burlington Primary Care, all clinicians play a key role in reducing antibiotic resistance by practicing antibiotic stewardship. This means not prescribing antibiotics for patients who are unlikely to suffer from bacterial infection, while ensuring the patients who do require antibiotic treatment receive the appropriate antibiotics, at the correct dose and for the proper duration.

We have raised the standard of clinical assessment, safety netting of patients by clinical education.

We monitor our prescribing of antibiotics figures regularly and this is a standard agenda item in all of our monthly clinical meetings.

Responsibility

It is the responsibility of all staff members who work at Burlington Primary Care to be familiar with this statement and their roles and responsibilities and policies and protocols.

Review

The IPC lead and Registered Manager are responsible for reviewing and producing the annual statement.

This annual statement will be updated on or before October 2025.

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