Infection Prevention & Control Primary Care General Practice Policies and Safe Practice Guidance

The Health & Social Care Act (2008) sets the overall framework for the regulation of health and adult social care activities by the Care Quality Commission. In support of the act, the Code of Practice on the Prevention and Control of Infections and related guidance (2022) provides explicit guidance for providers to support them and their staff in the delivery of safe and effective care, minimising or eliminating risks from healthcare-associated infections. Criterion 9 of the Code requires service providers to have a range of policies and procedures that will help prevent and control the transmission of infections. The Code contains a list of 30 separate policies, with the expectation that service providers will have policies on all issues of relevance to their service e.g. hand hygiene, protective clothing (PPE), management of sharps injuries and much more.

IPS have developed a range of comprehensive policy manuals that provide guidance on all 30 subject headings contained in the Code, together with additional guidance documents for specific service providers. Each manual is focused on implementation of key principles of infection prevention relevant to the sector of care e.g. primary care, GP extended services and GP out of hours services. Each policy explains the rationale behind these key principles so that staff understand why a particular practice is needed. Each policy provides current evidence-based practice (where applicable) and is supported by a range of appendices relating to key procedures which can be printed and laminated as posters.

The contents page is available in the sample IPC Manual below.