Job responsibilities
WHO ARE WE
- We are Circle Health Group.
- We are the number one independent provider of hospital services in this country, with more than 50 hospitals, 6000 specialists and 2 million patient visit each year.
- We offer high quality, safe, accessible, and affordable healthcare.
- We want to be the most innovative and patient focused healthcare organisation.
WHO ARE YOU
- You make sure that standards of patient care are consistently applied and maintained.
- You maintain and enhance customer service and satisfaction.
- You promote and safeguard the wellbeing and interests of all patients, employees, and visitors.
WHAT DO YOU DO
- You ensure Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) is addressed in all areas of the hospital and reflected throughout all activity related to healthcare provision.
- You ensure infection prevention is considered in all new business, new build, and refurbishment.
- You ensure compliance to the HCAI code (DH 2010) for CQC requirements in England and equivalent for hospitals in Scotland and Wales.
- You develop in partnership with the senior person responsible for IPC (Director of Clinical Services (DCS)) and with approval of the HIPCC, an annual program, that is aligned to the HCAI code (DH 2010) (plus for Scottish and Welsh hospitals: HAI Standards in Scotland and National HCAI strategy for hospitals in Wales) and reflects specific objectives of Circle Health Group National Infection Prevention and Control annual program
- You ensure compliance to mandatory training in infection prevention and control (IP&C) and be compliant with all measures required to reduce HCAIs.
- You ensure all staff have appropriate infection prevention and control training using a combination of online and face to face training.
- You undertake specific role related competencies and learning, ensuring 100% compliance of all relevant mandatory training within Learning Space timescales.
- You ensure compliance with the company infection screening and immunisation policies as well as be familiar with IP&C policies, including those that apply to your duties, such as hand decontamination, personal protective equipment, aseptic techniques, and safe disposal of sharps. All staff must challenge non-compliance with infection, prevention, and control policies immediately and feedback through the appropriate line managers if required.
- You lead the team to deliver care that helps improve the health of the individual and wider community.
- You develop your own competence to deliver effective care and treatments through improving clinical/technical knowledge / skill, and expertise.
- You utilise and work in partnership with the local Infection Control Doctor (ICD) ensuring that the service level agreement is appropriate for the hospital size, activity levels and complexity.
- You ensure risks of infection are identified throughout all hospital departments and disciplines and risk assessments are in place reflecting controls that are reviewed at least annually and as otherwise indicated.
- You ensure compliance with all Infection Prevention and Control policies and procedures.
- You ensure local infection control policies reflect corporate policies, writing local Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) as appropriate, and liaise with departmental heads to ensure these are implemented.
- You implement and oversee a surveillance program that includes:
- Alert organism and disease surveillance/ Alert symptom surveillance
- Surgical site surveillance: especially hip and knee replacement surgery
- All bacteraemia reports for internal and external reporting
- All Clostridium Dificile for internal and external reporting
- All surveillance data are analysed, utilising the expertise and input of the local ICD.
- You ensure that Root Cause Analyses (RCA) is undertaken in cases of infection to identify issues and causes with inclusion of clinical staff, especially in relation to changes required in practice as a result of the analysis.
- You develop IPC link practitioners in all areas of the hospital to support IPC practice in their own areas/disciplines.
- You ensure programs of auditing are in place in relation to IPC and support the active involvement of IPC link practitioners in each area.
- You ensure all low-risk medical devices throughout the hospital are subject to a decontamination schedule appropriate for the level of risk, and ensure that all medium and high-risk medical devices used in the hospital are subject to appropriate decontamination i.e.:
- SLA for sterile services with an accredited sterile service department for surgical instruments.
- For on-site high-level disinfectant for endoscope equipment, that a compliant unit and service is provided.
- You ensure that you work in partnership with the hospital engineer and ICD for support in monitoring the environment, this includes:
- Ventilation (especially in pharmacy aseptic units, theatre departments, minor ops departments and endoscope units)
- Water safety (including hydrotherapy pools)
- You ensure environmental cleaning is sufficient and appropriate to the level of risk in each area of the hospital in partnership with housekeeping department.
- You ensure management of any food preparation is undertaken by trained competent staff in partnership with catering department.
- You provide comment and advice on the purchase/introduction and use of equipment in relation to IPC issues.
- You support the local Waste Officer in all waste management but especially in the management of the clinical waste stream.
- You ensure all reports required centrally for organisational wide information purposes and to support early identification of risks are collated and submitted within the set time limits.
- You ensure IPC is an integral part of local governance and health & safety structures.
- You ensure compliance with Circle Health Group Policies and Procedures relevant to this role, ensuring you are fully aware of your responsibilities within these policies.
- You demonstrate awareness of regulatory requirements, taking appropriate action to ensure these requirements are implemented and adhered to.
- You participate in hospital cover as required / clinical manager on-call rotas including weeknights and weekends.
- You deputise for the line manager in their absence as appropriate.
WHAT DO YOU HAVE
- Registered Nurse (or other registrant profession e.g., Operating Department Practitioner).
- Teaching and assessing qualification e.g., ENB 998 (or equivalent).
- Post graduate Qualification in IPC such as PGCert (as a minimum) or working towards, PGDip or MSc.
- Specialist knowledge to a level defined for that hospital.
- Able to apply specialist knowledge to risk assessment and support appropriate controls.
- Presentations skills.
- Previous experience working in IPC role and delivering information to staff members on IPC.
- Ability to provide or/and support staff in feedback of microbiological results.
- Good attention to detail.
WHAT SORT OF PERSON ARE YOU
- You are a great communicator with different people at different levels.
- You are an excellent judge and decision maker.
- You are a highly effective problem solver.
- You are proactive and driven to succeed.
- You are punctual, committed, and reliable.
- You are flexible and adaptable.
- You are committed to lifelong learning.
WHAT ELSE
- This is intended as an outline of the general areas of activity. This is not exhaustive and may change due to future changes and developments.
- You must maintain your knowledge and conduct your duties responsibly with the guidance of the Health & Safety at Work Act.
- You treat all patient information as confidential and would only breach confidence if you felt that a patient or member of staff was at risk of harm.
Health & Safety / Confidentiality
You must maintain knowledge of Health and Safety at Work Act. Ensuring appropriate measures are taken in respect of Health and Safety for staff, visitors, and contractors.
In the course of their dutys employees will have access to confidential material about patients, members of staff and Circle Health Group. On no account must information relating to identifiable patients be divulged to anyone other than authorised persons, for example, medical, nursing, or other professional staff, as appropriate, who are concerned directly with the care, diagnosis and/or treatment of the patient. Similarly, no information of a personal or confidential nature concerning individual members of staff should be divulged to anyone without the proper authority. Failure to observe these rules will be regarded as serious misconduct, which could result in disciplinary action being taken including dismissal.
This job description is intended as an outline of the general areas of activity. This job description is not an exhaustive document and may be subject to alteration in the light of future changes and developments.
Opportunities with Circle Health Group
Circle Health Group is committed to creating a diverse workforce offering inclusive opportunities for all our colleagues. Our definition of diversity goes beyond the established characteristics protected by the Equality Act, as we strive to attract candidates with diverse experiences, backgrounds, identities or expressions, skills, work stylesand more.
We are passionate about creating an environment where our people can thrive, grow, and develop professionally and personally. Our principles and values guide our colleagues to be selfless, compassionate, committed, collaborative, brave, agile, tenacious, and creative and are at the core of our purpose and culture.