Safety recommendation
It is recommended that NHS England and NHS Improvement:
- develops a national intensive infection prevention and control (IPC) safety support programme for COVID-19 which focuses on leadership, IPC technical support, education, practice, guidance and assurance
- develops a national IPC strategy which focuses on developing IPC capacity, capability and sustainability across the NHS in England.
Response:
The national IPC team, part of the Chief Nursing Officer’s Directorate, provides national leadership and a coordinated IPC programme for the NHS in England in conjunction with PHE and DHSC. The team works with Regional Chief Nurses and Regional IPC leads to offer leadership, technical advice, safety support, education and the sharing of best practice across the country.
To support implementation of PHE’s IPC guidance in NHS organisations, the key actions for IPC and testing were published initially on 17 November with a revised version published on 23 December. The national IPC team has established an assurance system through regional teams on delivery of these key actions by NHS provider organisations. This complements existing board-level assurance of IPC practices through the IPC Board Assurance Framework.
The IPC team’s work is supported by a daily data collection of COVID 19 infections from all NHS providers in England. These data provide a live update on any issues and organisations which require expert support, which is provided through regional teams. Weekly infection data is published on NHS England’s website since early August to support transparency.
To deliver their support, the national IPC team established a regionally-led intensive support programme for IPC in October 2020. This programme provided funding for IPC expertise in each region to allow for direct IPC support to be delivered to NHS organisations reporting increased nosocomial infections.
Proposals are currently being developed by the Nursing Directorate for a programme of work to further improve IPC capacity and capability. This programme will also support delivery of strategic objectives in the NHS Long Term Plan relating to the Antimicrobial Resistance 5 year national action plan.
It will entail the delivery of 4 pillars to build the capacity and capability of IPC resource and function by:
- Development of a nationally recognised education framework for IPC and leadership training,
- Resourcing of national team or building national capability,
- QI approach to delivery of programmes -AMR/GNBSI/Covid-19 nosocomial
- Workforce reviews.
Timeline: Development and approval of a national strategy by mid 2021.
Response received on 25 January 2021.