The Health and Social Care Act 2008: Code of Practice on the prevention and control of infections and related guidance

This document sets out the Code of Practice on the prevention and control of infections, under The Health and Social Care Act 2008. It will apply to registered providers of all healthcare and adult social care in England. The Code of Practice (Part 2) sets out the 10 criteria against which the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will judge a registered provider on how it complies with the cleanliness and infection control requirement, which is set out in regulations. 1 Not all criteria will apply to every regulated activity but to ensure that consistently high levels of infection prevention and control are developed and maintained, it is essential that all providers of health and social care read and consider the whole document and not just selective parts. Parts 3 and 4 of this document will help registered providers interpret the criteria and develop their own risk assessments. The appendices provide examples of how a proportionate approach could be applied to the criteria in all sectors and it is important to read the examples given in the appendices, alongside the guidance under each criterion in Part 3 of this document. The bibliography lists a range of supporting national guidance. This document builds on the previous Code of Practice: The Health and Social Care Act 2008 Code of Practice for health and adult social care on the prevention and control of infections and related guidance , which applied to NHS bodies and providers of independent healthcare and adult social care in England. The registration requirements will extend further from April 2011 to include primary dental care and independent sector ambulance providers, including air or water ambulances, and from April 2012 primary medical care providers. The DH have revised the previous Code of Practice document in order to make it applicable to all these