Infection Control Annual Statement

Purpose

This annual statement will be generated yearly in April. It will summaries:

• Any infection transmission incidents and any action taken. These will be reported in accordance with our significant events procedure.
• Details of any infection control audits undertaken and actions undertaken
• Details of any control risk assessments undertaken
• Details of staff training
• Any review and update policies, procedures and guidelines

Background

Kings Corner Surgery has 1 lead for Infection Prevention Control:

Nurse Gill Mitchell.

Audits

1. An audit on minor surgery was done. It is as follows.

• 64 minor surgery was performed. It was sent off for histology. There was no post minor surgery infection and histology result was benign. 
• 14 invasive injections were given. No post injection infections were reported.
• 45 IUD were fitted. No post coil infections were reported.
• 14 implants were fitted, and no post implant infections were reported.
• 15 implant removals were done, and no infections were reported. 

2. Room audits are carried out bi-annually by Nurse Gill Mitchell. No major issues were noted

• Some fabric chairs remain in all upstairs clinical rooms. However these are stacked and not used by patients.  These should be removed from surgery at our earliest convenience or store away out of clinical rooms.
• Carpeted flooring remains. The practice is trying to source some funding to have this changed to clinical flooring with skirting. 
• Sinks continue to have single taps rather than due taps with long lever for elbow movements. Clinicians are aware this is an issue and are turning taps on and off with paper towels. 

3. Hand washing audit is done quarterly for all staff. This is carried out by nurse Gill Mitchell and she watches all staff wash their hands. Hand washing guides are displayed above all sinks in the Practice

• All staff washed their hands for the appropriate length of time showing all 12 steps.

4. Vaccine fridge audit was carried out by Nurse Gill Mitchell. No major issues were noted.

• There were some days missing on vaccine fridge temperature check. The nursing team need to try and make sure this is done daily. Although there is an internal thermometer to help bridge the gap on any missing data. 

The inadequacies that were noted are being addressed to ensure compliance. We aim to do more to share information with our patients and will therefore publish this Annual Statement on our practice website.

Practice Cleaning

Kings Corner Surgery employs a cleaning company. Audits are carried out by the manager of this company to ensure standard of cleanliness and hygiene is maintained and if we have any concerns we log this in our cleaners log book.

The company name is called Low Cost Cleaning. 

There has been no feedback from any patients indicating any problems with the cleaning within the practice.

Staff Training

All staff undertake the appropriate level of Infection Prevention control training at induction and annually thereafter. Training records are recorded with the practice manager. 

Covid Restrictions

There are minimal restrictions left in place.

We continue to encourage use of masks for both staff and patients alike. 

We have a low threshold for staff sickness and staff should not be coming to practice if unwell in any way.

Staff are encouraged to test for covid if they have any covid symptoms, but we no longer are required to do bi weekly routine testing. 

All staff have be trained on how and when to wear their PPE correctly. 

Toys, Books and Magazines

Toys, books and magazines have not been available in the waiting room for some time now. They will not be returning when the waiting room is available for patient use again.

Policies, procedures and guidelines

Any policies and procedures relating to infection, Prevention Control are reviewed and updated annually. However, any new legislation or guidance that comes in to action before a review date this will be added and the review date will be changed accordingly.