The National infection prevention and control manual (NIPCM) for England is the evidence-based practice manual that applies as mandatory guidance in NHS settings, and in any setting where NHS services are delivered — general practice included.
Alongside it, the responsibilities for personal protective equipment (PPE) and FIT testing are worth checking against what’s actually happening in your practice. All healthcare organisations are responsible for ensuring they have sufficient supplies of the required PPE, and that staff are trained and competent in using it correctly.
The point most likely to catch practices out: primary care providers, like all NHS providers, are now responsible for sourcing and purchasing their own PPE — including FFP3 respirator masks — and for arranging FIT testing, in order to maintain safe working conditions for infection prevention and control. This isn’t necessarily provided or funded centrally, so it’s worth confirming your practice has this covered rather than assuming it sits with your ICB.
Assurance of FIT testing does sit with ICBs, who are expected to carry this out in line with existing requirements, working with local stakeholders and providers as needed. That’s a check on the system, though — not a substitute for your practice having its own PPE supply and FIT testing arrangements in place.
Worth doing now: confirm who in your practice owns PPE procurement and budgeting, check your FFP3 stock and FIT testing records are current, and make sure staff training on correct PPE use is up to date and evidenced.
Useful resources:
- National infection prevention and control manual (NIPCM) for England
- Health and Social Care Act 2008: code of practice on the prevention and control of infections
- Addendum on high consequence infectious disease (HCID) personal protective equipment (PPE)
- Guidance on respiratory protective equipment (RPE) fit testing
This is a summary of published guidance and is not a substitute for your practice’s own IPC policy or legal advice. Check the source documents above before relying on this for compliance purposes.
Why this matters for your CQC readiness
PPE and FIT testing sit inside one of CQC’s fixed evidence points: Infection prevention and control (IPC) is one of only 10 statements re-scored at every Returning to Good & Outstanding assessment. It also carries a sting most practices don’t realise until it bites — a single statement scoring 1 caps the whole Safe key question at Requires Improvement, no matter how strong everything else is. IPC, alongside staffing and environments, is one of the areas practices most often lose marks on, even when the day-to-day infection control is genuinely sound. The issue is almost never the practice — it’s whether the evidence trail exists to show it.
That’s why “confirm who owns PPE procurement,” “check FIT testing records are current,” and “make sure training is evidenced” (the three actions in this post) map directly onto the Harmony method:
- Process — a written PPE and FIT testing policy naming who owns procurement and budget, so it isn’t assumed to sit with the ICB by default
- Training — staff trained in correct PPE use, tracked on your Skills Matrix so gaps are visible at a glance
- Proof — FIT testing records and training evidence kept current and ready to produce, not reconstructed after the fact
If a CQC assessor asked to see your FIT testing records and PPE ownership tomorrow, would you be able to put your hands on them? If that’s a “maybe,” our Inspection Readiness Workshop walks through exactly how to build that evidence trail: workshop.hcqc.co.uk
Want to talk it through with other practice managers and GP partners first? Join our free community at 1.hcqc.co.uk.