Infection Prevention and Control Statement

August 2018

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1. Known infection transmission events.

There have been no known infection transmission events in the last 12 months

2. Audits undertaken

• Audits of premises are undertaken monthly. These audits were developed based on advice and guidance from the local public health infection and prevention and control team.  Results are passed to Karen Elgey for action if needed.  
• There is on ongoing maintenance of premises and replacement of furniture within the practice.
• Hand hygiene
• Aseptic technique procedure

3. Risk assessments undertaken

The following infection prevention control risk assessments are reviewed at least annually or as required:

• GP consultations
• Nurse consultations
• Visiting health care professionals consultations
• Minor ops

4. Training

The following training has been completed by staff:

• Hand hygiene
• Aseptic technique
• General infection control and prevention based on current guidelines was delivered by the local public health infection and prevention control team lead nurse. 
• Needle stick awareness delivered by occupational health

5. Antimicrobial prescribing

All prescribers within The Medical Group are committed to meeting local and national targets for reducing antimicrobial prescribing. 

Prescribers are supported in this with the following:

• ‘North East and Cumbria antimicrobial prescribing guideline for primary care’ available for prescribers on GP team net.  
• NECS Medicines Optimisation Team monitor antimicrobial prescribing on behalf of NHS North Durham CCG and this data is available for staff on a practice basis via GP team net
• NECS Medicines Optimisation Team delivers updates for medical staff and non-medical prescribers including antimicrobial prescribing. 
• Advice and support with prescribing from microbiologists when required. 
• Access to diagnostic microbiology from the local NHS Trust

6. Policies and procedures

All practice policies including infection prevention and control related policies are reviewed at least annually or sooner if needed in response to new local or national guidelines.

All policies are available to staff via GP team net for reference and require acknowledgement from staff on development and updating.

7. Vaccination programmes

The Medical Group follow national guidelines for the delivery of all vaccinations programmes. The annual flu vaccination campaign is widely advertised in each surgery. Each surgery provides additional clinics to help support this campaign. 

8. Alerts 

All alerts including those related to infection and infection outbreaks are received and actioned by a designated person within the practice. These are then cascaded to staff appropriately by email and are made available to staff via GP team net. 

K Pinkney