We aim to keep our surgery clean and tidy and offer a safe environment to our patients and staff. We are proud of our modern, purpose built Practice and endeavour to keep it clean and well maintained at all times.
If you have any concerns about cleanliness or infection control, please report these to our Reception staff.
Our GPs and nursing staff follow our Infection Control Policy to ensure the care we deliver and the equipment we use is safe.
We take additional measures to ensure we maintain the highest standards:
- Encourage staff and patients to raise any issues or report any incidents relating to cleanliness and infection control. We can discuss these and identify improvements we can make to avoid any future problems
- Carry out an annual infection control audit to make sure our infection control procedures are working
- Provide annual staff updates and training on cleanliness and infection control
- Review our policies and procedures to make sure they are adequate and meet national guidance
- Maintain the premises and equipment to a high standard within the available financial resources and ensure that all reasonable steps are taken to reduce or remove all infection risk
- Use washable or disposable materials for items such as couch rolls, modesty curtains, floor coverings, towels etc., and ensure that these are laundered, cleaned or changed frequently to minimise risk of infection
- Make Alcohol Hand Rub Gel available throughout the building.
Infection Control Annual Statement 2025
Purpose
This annual statement will be generated each year in July in accordance with the requirements of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 Code of Practice on the prevention and control of infections and related guidance. It summarises:
- Any infection transmission incidents and any action taken (these will have been reported in accordance with our Significant Event procedure)
- Details of any infection control audits undertaken and actions undertaken
- Details of any risk assessments undertaken for prevention and control of infection
- Details of staff training
- Any review and update of policies, procedures and guidelines
Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Lead
The Fryern Surgery has 3 Leads for Infection Prevention and Control: Practice Nurse Charlie Prestidge & Lead Nurse Fionnagh Roberts
The IPC Lead is supported by: Dr Emily Kent
The above leads keep updated on infection prevention practice.
Infection transmission incidents (Significant Events)
Significant events (which may involve examples of good practice as well as challenging events) are investigated in detail to see what can be learnt and to indicate changes that might lead to future improvements. All significant events are reviewed in the weekly team leads meetings as they occur and learning is cascaded to all relevant staff.
In the past year there have been no significant events raised that related to infection control.
Infection Prevention Audit and Actions
The Annual Infection Prevention and Control audit was completed by Charlie Prestidge in July 2025.
As a result of the audit, the following things have been changed in Fryern Surgery:
- Replace fabric chairs with wipeable chairs when they need replacing.
- Replace any sinks which currently use flexi pipes or overflows with compliant sinks when rooms are refurbished.
- The audit recommendations were implemented:
- Tiger stripe bags for non-infectious clinical waste are in use throughout the practice.
- All clinical rooms have colour coded signs to indicate which sharps bins are required in each room.
Dr Mark Aley and Dr Helen Phillips carry out ongoing audit for minor surgery with post-surgery review and diagnosis.
One wound infection was reported for patients who had had minor surgery at the Fryern Surgery. Antibiotics and nursing wound care completed and wound healed withing 6 weeks.
Dr Sam Gee currently audits his joint injections every 3 years.
New staff receive online training and read the Hand hygiene policy.
The Fryern Surgery plan to undertake the following audits annually.
- Annual Infection Prevention and Control audit
- Minor Surgery outcomes audit
Risk Assessments
Risk assessments are carried out so that best practice can be established and then followed. In the last year the following risk assessments were carried out / reviewed:
Legionella (Water) Risk Assessment: The practice has conducted/reviewed its water safety risk assessment to ensure that the water supply does not pose a risk to patients, visitors or staff. At this current date we do not have any risk to Legionella. Debbie Firth is the water safety lead at the practice.
Immunisation: As a practice we ensure that all our staff are up to date with their Hepatitis B immunisations and offered any occupational health vaccinations applicable to their role (i.e. MMR, Seasonal Flu). We take part in the National Immunisation campaigns for patients and offer vaccinations in house and via home visits to our patient population.
Curtains: The NHS Cleaning Specifications state the disposable curtains/blinds should be visibly clean with no blood or body substances, dust, dirt, debris, stains or spillages. There are no set durations for this, however, the curtains should be checked every 6 months Jan/July. The window blinds are very low risk and therefore do not require a particular cleaning regime other than regular vacuuming to prevent build-up of dust. The modesty curtains, although handled by clinicians are never handled by patients and clinicians have been reminded to always remove gloves and clean hands after an examination and before touching the curtains. All curtains are regularly reviewed and changed if visibly soiled.
Toys: We have no toys in the practice OR NHS Cleaning Specifications recommend that all toys are cleaned regularly, and we therefore provide only wipeable toys in waiting / consultation rooms.
Cleaning specifications, frequencies and cleanliness: We have added a cleaning specification and frequency policy poster in the waiting room to inform our patients of what they can expect in the way of cleanliness. We also have a cleaning specification and frequency policy which our cleaners and staff work to. An assessment of cleanliness is conducted by the cleaning team and logged (kept in the cleaning cupboard). This includes all aspects in the surgery including cleanliness of equipment.
There are cleaning schedules/duties in every clinical room/GP room for reference. The nursing team have a ‘treatment room cleaning schedule’ available on the nurses drive accessible through SharePoint.
Hand washing sinks: The practice has clinical hand washing sinks in every room for staff to use. Some of our sinks do not meet the latest standards for sinks but we have removed plugs, covered overflows and reminded staff to turn off taps that are not ‘hands free’ with paper towels to keep patients safe. These will be replaced as and when renovation happens. We have also replaced our liquid soap with wall mounted soap dispensers to ensure cleanliness.
Training
All our staff receive two yearly e-learning training in Infection Prevention and Control and are up to date as of July 2025.
Clinical staff complete annual Infection Prevention and Control e-learning training and are up to date as of July 2025.
Nurse Charlie Prestidge (IPC Lead) attends regular Infection Prevention and Control forums and topic specific training/course/meetings.
Policies
All Infection Prevention and Control related policies are in date for this year.
Policies relating to Infection Prevention and Control are available to all staff on the shared drive under Staff Information > Policies & Procedures > Clinical Policies and Protocols > Infection Control. These are reviewed and updated every 2 years and are amended on an on-going basis as per current advice, guidance and legislative changes. Infection Control policies are circulated amongst staff for reading, discussed at meetings on an annual basis, and any changes will be communicated to staff as they happen. These are found on the shared drive.
Responsibility
It is the responsibility of each individual to be familiar with this Statement and their roles and responsibilities under this.
Review date – July 2026
Responsibility for Review
The Infection Prevention and Control Leads and the GP Partner are responsible for reviewing and producing the Annual Statement for and on behalf of the Fryern Surgery.
Doctor Emily Kent
Practice Nurse Charlie Prestidge
Lead Nurse Fionnagh Roberts
For and on behalf of The Fryern Surgery