Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the report by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch COVID-19 transmission in hospitals: management of the risk – a prospective safety investigation, published in October 2020, what assessment they have made of the impact of hospital design on the transmission of infection; and what plans they have to issue new guidance on staff flow and interaction to mitigate that risk.

Individual National Health Service organisations are responsible for implementing infection prevention and control measures in line with Public Health England’s national infection prevention and control (IPC) guidance to minimise in-hospital transmission of COVID-19 and support patient safety. The actions each organisation undertakes to meet the national IPC guidance must take into account the design of their estate and interactions between staff in both clinical and non-clinical areas.

NHS England and NHS Improvement’s ten key actions for boards on IPC and testing published on 17 November and revised on 23 December, emphasises the importance of organisations ensuring that their staff practise good hygiene, maintain social distancing, avoid car sharing, wear appropriate personal protective equipment at work including face masks in non-clinical settings and minimise movement between COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 areas. A copy of these actions is attached.