Overview – Principles

Overview – Principles

All staff members are involved in the practice’s infection prevention and control program (see Criterion GP4.1 – Infection prevention and control, including sterilisation in the Standards).

Infection prevention and control in health care is based on:

• risk assessment and planning
• establishing policies for maintaining infection prevention and control procedures, including systematically applying the appropriate level of precautions for any situation
• education and training for all staff to implement infection prevention and control effectively and consistently.

The practice’s infection prevention and control processes must be supported by up-to-date evidence and understanding of the rationale for recommended processes. Staff can keep up to date by using education and training resources and through information provided by infectious disease authorities (see Links).

Essential infection prevention and control processes include:

• hand hygiene
• respiratory hygiene and cough/sneeze etiquette
• use of personal protective equipment
• staff screening, immunisation, and infection management
• aseptic technique
• sharps management
• specific precautions against relevant modes of transmission
• cleaning, laundry and waste management
• reprocessing reusable medical devices
• managing exposure to blood and other body substances
• disease surveillance and outbreak response.