NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency have created a toolkit of resources to raise awareness of Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) prevention, symptom recognition and treatment which includes advice on how and when to seek help.
National infection prevention and control manual for England is an evidence based practice manual for all those involved in care provision in England to provide a consistent UK wide approach to IPC.
Guidance specific for adult social care settings can be found at: Infection prevention and control in adult social care settings .
Information relating specifically to COVID is dealt with within:
Your local UKHSA (UK Health Security Agency) Health Protection Team (HPT) can provide guidance if there is an outbreak in your care home. If you have an outbreak of flu, your UKHSA - HPT will be able to advise whether antivirals are indicated and, if so, make arrangements for these to be prescribed.
The UKHSA - Surrey and Sussex HPT (South East) contact details are:
• Telephone (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm): 0344 225 3861
• Email (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm): SE.AcuteResponse@ukhsa.gov.uk
• Out-of-hours telephone (Mon-Fri 5pm-9am, Saturday and Sunday): Varies by location, In order to find your local health protection team in please go to Find your local health protection team on Gov.uk.
Please contact UKHSA - Surrey and Sussex HPT (South East) if:
• two or more residents or staff are unwell with flu-like illness and have tested negative for COVID-19 on LFD or PCR, or
• you are informed of a case of confirmed flu in a resident (for example if they are tested because of a hospital admission). Whilst you may not have an outbreak, we can talk you through general control measures and what you need to do if there are further cases, or
• you have an outbreak of diarrhoea or vomiting (regardless of any laboratory results). If you have an outbreak of COVID-19 in your care home (residents or staff with positive COVID-19 tests), you do NOT need to report this to your HPT if you are confident of the steps you need to take in line with published national guidance.
However, please contact UKHSA - Surrey and Sussex HPT (South East) if any of the following apply:
• significant increases in number of cases of COVID-19 (or you are concerned the outbreak is not under control),
• more hospitalisations than expected of staff or residents due to the outbreak,
• more deaths than expected,
• difficulty in applying the outbreak control measures e.g. due to high numbers of staff isolating.
Note: It is important that outbreaks of flu-like illness are reported to your HPT without delay because the window for antiviral use is very short. However, please test for COVID-19 before contacting your HPT (using LFD testing) to rule out a COVID-19 outbreak first.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) South East Winter Pack is a resource available to providers which includes information on the management of respiratory and gastrointestinal outbreaks within social care facilities .
