Guidance

UKHSA review into IPC guidance

Recommendations for changes to COVID-19 infection prevention and control (IPC) advice to help ease pressure on the NHS.

• From: UK Health Security Agency
• Published: 27 September 2021
• Last updated: 19 October 2021 — See all updates

This publication was withdrawn on 22 April 2022

The information in this document has been superseded by Infection prevention and control for seasonal respiratory infections in health and care settings (including SARS-CoV-2) for winter 2021 to 2022.

Where changes are made locally to COVID-19 control measures, organisations are responsible for undertaking appropriate risk assessments, approved through local governance processes, to ensure that patient and staff safety is not compromised. For example, consideration of local factors, such as infection prevalence, patient mix and bed availability, need to be considered for the management of contacts of confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2.

Documents

[Withdrawn] Recommendation 1: reduce physical distancing in low risk areas for elective procedures or planned care

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[Withdrawn] Recommendation 2: change the pre-procedure testing advice prior to elective procedures or planned care

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[Withdrawn] Recommendation 3: standard cleaning procedures to be reintroduced in low risk areas

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[Withdrawn] Recommendation 4: a more flexible approach to patient consultations in primary care and general practice

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Details

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has published recommendations for COVID-19 infection prevention and control in primary care and GP services.

This follows 3 initial recommendations which focused on elective care:

• a reduction of physical distancing from 2 metres to 1 metre with appropriate mitigations where patient access can be controlled
• removing the need for a negative PCR and 3 days self-isolation before selected elective procedures as currently advised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
• re-adopting standard rather than enhanced cleaning procedures

Published 27 September 2021
Last updated 19 October 2021 + show all updates

1. 19 October 2021

   Updated physical distancing advice in 'Recommendation 1: reduce physical distancing in low risk areas for elective procedures or planned care' from 'pre-COVID levels' to '1m'.

2. 14 October 2021

   Added 'Recommendation 4: a more flexible approach to patient consultations in primary care and general practice'.

3. 27 September 2021

   First published.