Hospitals falling down on control of infection

AT LEAST one standard procedure aimed at preventing the spread of infection has not been implemented “consistently” in two-thirds of hospitals and NHS services inspected in the past year, according to a new report.

The Healthcare Environment Inspectorate report also found out-of-date policies in seven hospitals and services. Also, in five NHS boards inspected, the infection control manager “did not have overall responsibility for all aspects of infection control”.

Communication “needs to be improved” in 17 of the hospitals, Healthcare Improvement Scotland said.

“While we noted an improvement in maintaining up-to-date infection control manuals, we also found instances where some policies and procedures were not implemented,” the authors wrote.

“The basic principles of good infection control are set out in various precautions staff should take when caring for patients to prevent the spread of infection. These are known as standard infection-control precautions.

“We found 22 hospitals and services where one or more of the standard infection-control precautions were not implemented consistently.”