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Infection Prevention and Control

Role of Infection Control Team

Email: infection.control@southstaffspct.nhs.uk

The Infection Control Team is made up of a Consultant Microbiologist, Director of Infection Prevention and Control (DIPC), a team of Infection Prevention and Control Nurses and an Administration Assistant.

The role of the Infection Control Team is to reduce the risk of patients, visitors and staff from sustaining a Healthcare Associated Infection (HCAI’s). HCAI’s are infections acquired as a result of treatment in the healthcare settings.

We can reduce the risk of HCAI’s in several ways:

• Education – We work with clinical and non clinical staff, visitors and patients educating them on all aspects of infection. We are a source of expert advice for staff, to ensure that they have safe working practices.
• Audit – We monitor aspects of care e.g. nursing practice, quality of cleaning and handwashing.
• Surveillance – MRSA, Clostridium Difficile, Bacteraemias and other HCAI’s. We look for trends and increases in bugs in different specialities.
• Advice – To nurses, doctors and GP’s by phone, bleep and email. We also give advice to the public. Some useful links on topics such as MRSA and Clostridium Difficile can be found on this website.
• Outbreaks – We investigate the cause of an outbreak and give daily advice on how to control it.
• New Initiatives – When products related to reducing infections are developed which may be of benefit to our patients, we trial them. If the trials are favourable then we work with the clinical teams to integrate them into our care provision.
• Policies - We write the Trusts Infection Control policies and procedures with co-operation from clinical teams.

Infection Control is the responsibility of every member of staff and can have an impact on every patient.

The Health and Social Care Act 2008 establishes the Care Quality Commission {www.cqc.org.uk} in place of the Healthcare Commission, the Commission for Social Care Inspection and Mental Health Act Commission to register, review, investigate and support improvements in the care provided to patients. this code of practice applies to NHS bodies carrying on a regulated activity in 2009/10. For 2010/11, a revised version of the Code covering independent healthcare and social care will be prepared.

• The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (921k)