South West London CCG Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Infection prevention and control All our providers in South West London have a governance framework in place for the management of infection prevention and control (IPC), working in line with the Health and Social Care Act (2008), the guidance updated in 2015. Infection prevention and control work is led by Dr Gloria Rowland, who took the position of Chief Nurse at both South West London Health and Care Partnership and NHS South West London CCG in early January 2021. Through a weekly South West London provider forum, the IPC medical and nursing teams across the area have undertaken a programme of work in the last year covering a wide range of areas including: • IPC policies and procedures have been updated in line with the most recent guidance. • Developing testing arrangements for staff and patients. • Infection outbreak management. • FIT testing for staff and personal protective equipment (PPE). • Pathway management in accordance with Public Health England’s “Covid 19: Guidance for the remobilisation of services within health and care settings. Infection Prevention and Control Recommendations” (September 2020). We have completed infection prevention and control assurance assessment peer reviews to give us a deeper understanding of infection prevention and control practice across South West London. These peer reviews focussed on: • The Director of Infection Prevention and Control role and the infection control team at each organisation. • IPC governance and policies and procedures. • IPC information provision. • The testing and communication approaches for staff and patients. • Reviewed individual Trust Board Assurance Framework (BAF) documents that had previously been reviewed by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) earlier in the year. Learning was incorporated into key lines of enquiry arising from Covid-19 outbreak incident at the Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and other infection outbreaks. Our infection prevention and control group publishes weekly reports which are reviewed by the CCG’s Clinical Leadership Group. This year we have prioritised supporting care homes in South West London by providing comprehensive training packages, webinars and networking and support sessions. During the first wave of the pandemic, we offered all care homes in the area training for working safely, including training for donning and doffing protective and personal equipment and basic hand decontamination 96 | NHS South West London Clinical Commissioning Group