Relevant legislation Flashcards
Health + safety at work act
seeks to protect staff + pts by being aware of potential hazards + encouraging safer options. In regard to infection control. The act advises a full risk assessment of potential hazards to develop ways on how to eliminate the risk within the dental practice to ensure the health + safety welfare of all members of staff and patients. All members of staff must follow the health and safety policy due to reports of the risk assessment findings as this will ensure a safe environment. Potential hazards that the Health + Safety at work Act considers are cross-infection, inoculation injury, use of hazardous chemicals + dental equipment that may cause Injury. Therefore, it is extremely important to conduct risk assessments and standardise safety procedures on all topics that are easily followed to prevent the risk of injury.
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health regulations (COSHH)
The desired outcome is the continuous use of important chemicals under safe conditions therefore, risk assessments must be carried out on all chemicals used within the practice to evaluate the risk + be aware of what is involved to ensure effective protection is worn + procedures are followed. The risk assessment must be kept in a COSHH file + read by all members of staff. This regulation recognises that disinfectants used in the dental practice such as sodium hypochlorite can irritate the skin, airway + eyes when used carelessly. PPE must be administered when handling such chemicals consisting of gloves, mask and glasses as well as an appropriately ventilated environment when handling to avoid irritation of the airway. The manufacturer’s instructions must always be followed especially in first aid advice as any solution’s bottle will show the necessary hazardous substance symbol + give advice in event of an accident in line with COSHH regulations.
Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR)
demonstrates two categories of minor + major accidents. Minor accidents include no serious injury + can be dealt with inhouse by keeping a written record of the incident, examples include a clean sharp injury or a minor mercury spillage that can be dealt with the spillage kit. Major accidents result in serious injury+ must be reported to the HSE under RIDDOR such as fractures, loss of sight, hypoxia + occupational health injury. In relation to infection control, the dental team may be exposed to common diseases as well as more serious pathogens by direct contact with infected blood, saliva + particularly from inoculation injury. it is important that PPE is worn, staff are vaccinated + the work place is adequately cleaned + ventilated to reduce airborne diseases. The diseases that must be reported are Legionella, Hepatitis B or C + HIV. the dangerous occurrences that must be reported under RIDDOR are examples in infection control such as the explosion or bursting of an autoclave, chemical fumes release of a large spillage and medical treatment requiring hypoxia. Therefore, it is extremely important that equipment is maintained, spillages are recovered accordingly + any accidents require action are dealt with promptly.
Special Waste and Hazardous Waste Regulations
Although the term ‘Special waste’ is no longer in use, much of the waste used in the dental practice is hazardous. To ensure safe storage, handling + disposal by licensed contractors, hazardous waste must be correctly segregated on the premises. In relevancy to infection control, ‘infectious hazardous waste’ includes items that may cause cross-infection if not handled correctly. Examples include soft waste such as PPE, tissues, x-ray film packets, barrier sheets + any non-sharp waste contaminated by bodily fluids. This must be disposed of in an orange hazardous waste sack.
Another example includes sharps waste such as needles, blades, matrix bands, burs, teeth without amalgams + any other sharp items that may cause injury if carelessly handled. This type of waste must be disposed of inside a yellow lidded sharps bin + is dated with an initial when first opening and when closing.
Department of Health guidelines and regulations e.g. Decontamination in primary care dental practices, Care Quality Commission
The CQC ensures adequate standards + drives improvement within the dental practice. An essential standard has been set that every practice must achieve to ensure registration with the CQC as they currently inspect compliance with this. Examples include the bagging and date stamping of instruments, re-sterilising of out of date instruments and the correct setup and use of the decontamination area. In relation to infection control, the essential standards expected are those set out by the HTM 0105 on decontamination and primary care practices.
Health & Safety Executive guidelines, best practice guidelines
The HTM 0105 is a working guide on decontamination techniques + is programmed to ensure continuous improvement on decontamination. Furthermore, it sets essential quality requirements which is the basic standard that must be achieved as well as ‘best practice’ which is the ideal gold standard to achieve in the future. Examples of the ‘gold standard’ is the use of a washer-disinfector, a separate decontamination area away from the clinical area + separate storage for sterilised instruments (a clean zone).
The Health and Safety Executive are reliant on the reporting of accidents within the work place but carrying out investigations on who was at fault and recovery. In regard to infection control, a contaminated sharps injury must be reported to the HSE under RIDDOR guidelines.
GDC Scope of Practice
GDC Scope of Practice demonstrates the skills +professional capability of carrying out actions within the dental practice. It is extremely important to work within the scope of practice to conduct safe treatment of patients +ensure a safe environment for all members of staff. However, the qualifications of a member staff may also be regularly updating so it is important to not carry out treatment unless professionally qualified + capable to do so as well what is best for the patient receiving the treatment.
