Infection Prevention and Control

We support the public within the Bury area with public health. We encourage excellent infection prevention and control practices in accordance with national standards by supporting adult health and social care organisations, children’s and early years settings as well as the general public.

We support this by:

Offering specialised guidance and instruction on infection prevention and control and decontamination
Offering infection control audits and provide and support training to assist health and social care providers to adhere to the standards outlined in the Health and Social Care Act 2008: code of practice on the prevention and control of infections and other national and local guidance.
Help and advise health care commissioners with the responsibility for monitoring and reducing healthcare associated infections (HCAIs) in accordance with the NHS Outcomes Framework.
Assist social care commissioners in implementing safe standards for infection prevention and control
Work in collaboration with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to support providers to effectively respond to outbreaks of infections
Develop and review infection prevention guidelines
Monitor local providers of health and social services with regards to compliance with the standards outlined in the Health and Social Care Act 2008: code of practice on the prevention and control of infections and other guidance.
Monitor and respond to data sources to raise public safety standards for infection prevention and control.
Assist social care commissioners in ensuring that safe standards for infection prevention and control are embedded in agreements and standard operating procedures with providers.

Aims and objectives of the infection prevention and control team are to:

Reduce avoidable infections in health and social care settings.
Monitor key indicators of infections.
Produce and distribute information in newsletters, meetings, forums and other means as requested.
Communicate with providers and provide advice and support based on national/local policy and guidance.
Provide specialised knowledge and experience in relation to outbreak and communicable disease.
Share public health messages through various networks
Offer infection prevention and control training and education to health and social care staff including PPE, decontamination, outbreak management and antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Important national infection prevention and control guidelines and policies that apply to all community care providers include:

Infection prevention and control: Quality Standard

This quality standard covers preventing and controlling infection in adults, young people and children receiving healthcare in primary, community and secondary care settings.

Health and Social Care Act 2008: code of practice on the prevention and control of infections

Code of practice on the effective prevention and control of infection by health service providers.

National infection prevention and control manual (NIPCM) for England

This is an evidence-based practice manual for use by all those involved in care provision in England

Infection prevention and control: resource for adult social care

This resource contains general infection prevention and control (IPC) principles to be used in combination with advice and guidance on managing specific infections.