R50 Response Accepted

24/7 IPC cover

Recommendation

Health Boards should ensure that there is 24-hour cover for infection prevention and control seven days a week, and that contingency plans for leave and sickness absence are in place.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
- The Scottish Government published its response to the Vale of Leven Hospital Inquiry Report on 18 June 2015, accepting all 75 recommendations and establishing an Implementation Group chaired by the Chief Nursing Officer (Scottish Government Response, June 2015).
- The Scottish Government's response discussed general workforce planning, including the use of nursing and midwifery workload and workforce planning tools. However, the specific requirement for 24-hour IPC cover seven days a week with contingency plans for leave and sickness was addressed at a general level rather than with a specific commitment.
- The Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 requires appropriate staffing levels at all times, which implicitly includes IPC staffing. However, 24/7 specialist IPC cover is a resource-intensive requirement that smaller boards may struggle to maintain consistently (Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2019/6)).
- The HAI Standards require NHS boards to have arrangements for IPC advice and support, but the extent to which 24/7 specialist IPC cover is consistently provided across all 14 NHS boards is not centrally reported.
Sources
How was this evidence gathered?
Evidence searched by Claude (Anthropic) on 10 Apr 2026
Checked data held on this site (government responses, progress updates, independent evidence)
This recommendation applies across many organisations. The evidence above reflects central policy activity; adoption in individual organisations may vary.
Jurisdiction
Scotland
Response
Accepted
Accepted Scottish Government
18 Jun 2015

Section 4.1 of the Scottish Government's response discusses general workforce planning, including the use of nursing and midwifery workload and workforce planning tools to determine the number of nurses or midwives needed. However, the provided text does not contain specific passages addressing the provision of 24-hour, seven-day-a-week cover for infection prevention and control staff, nor does it detail contingency plans for their leave and sickness absence.

Read Full Response
Published Evidence

Published assessments of progress from inspectorates, select committees, official progress reports, and other sources. Source type badge indicates whether each assessment is independent or government self-reported.

Good Progress
01 May 2022
Healthcare Improvement Scotland Other

HIS IPC Standards (2022) address requirements for 24/7 IPC cover. Infection Prevention Workforce Strategic Plan 2022-2024 addresses workforce planning for IPC services including contingency arrangements.

View detailed findings

National standards and workforce strategic plan address the requirement for round-the-clock IPC cover and contingency planning.

HIS IPC Standards and Workforce Strategic Plan View Source
Source
Inquiry Vale of Leven Inquiry
Report The Vale of Leven Hospital Inquiry Report 24 Nov 2014
View Source
Responsible Bodies
NHS Health Boards (Scotland) Primary
Themes & Tags
Care home infection control Emergency contingency plans Staff rota communication Infection Control Staffing
Recommendation age 11.5 yrs
Last formal update 4000 days ago