COVID-19 Nosocomial Review Group minutes: 19 June 2020

Items and Actions

1. The group discussed IPC practice in hospitals and updates to UK guidance on masks and summary of rapid reviews of international evidence on IPC to date.  New UK IPC guidance has been drafted for issue in July – key changes will have a 7 days review period for comment.
2. Remobilisation of the NHS and IPC needs in the healthcare built environment were discussed. It was noted that interim guidance via FAQs and new Signage graphics had been produced by NSS to support boards. Key themes and needs for future design would be discussed at future meetings. It was agreed that a High level IPC principles document would be produced for current remobilisation needs and a longer term routemap would also be considered by a sub group
3. The group agreed IPC and AMU indicators for hospitals in Scotland and next steps for implementation of monitoring.
4. A review of available data on the patients over 70 years hospital admission testing pilot scheme and options for future testing at admission was discussed and recommendations made for policy.
5. The role of WGS data to better understand transmissions dynamics of COVID-19 within and between hospitals. The WGS data are not available in real time and so consideration of how to retrospectively investigate clusters and incidents will be progressed.
6. Review of PHS RAPID dataset using the UK HAI definitions including readmission and post discharge data (RAPID and ECOSS data). Group noted data not validated at present and this was required before publication.