The draft NICE quality standard for Infection control consultation closed at 5pm on Tuesday 17 December 2013.

Consultation documents

• Infection control: draft quality standard

Please note that this quality standard is provisional and may change after consultation with stakeholders.

Background documents

The following supporting documents were used in formulating the draft quality standard. These are working documents which are provided as background information only and are not for consultation.

• Infection control briefing paper
• Infection control. NICE clinical guideline 139 (2012).
• Prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections. NICE public health guidance 36 (2011).
• Respiratory tract infections – antibiotic prescribing. NICE clinical guideline 69 (2008)
• Pratt RJ et al. epic2: National evidence-based guidelines for preventing healthcare-associated infections in NHS hospitals in England. Journal of Hospital Infection 65 (supplement 1): S1–64 (2007).
• Equality analysis 2

How to submit your comments

Please provide all responses to the draft quality standard using the comments proforma (ensuring all relevant fields are completed, including your organisation's full name) and forward this electronically by 5pm on Tuesday 17 December 2013 at the very latest to this email address: QSconsultations@nice.org.uk

The Institute is unable to accept

• Comments from non-registered organisations - if you wish your comments to be considered please register via the NICE website
• Comments from individuals - please contact the registered stakeholder organisation that most closely represents your interests and pass your comments to them.
• Comments received after the consultation deadline (5pm)
• Comments that are not on the correct proforma
• More than one response per stakeholder organisation
• Confidential information or other material that you would not wish to be made public
• Personal medical information about yourself or another person from which your or the person's identity could be ascertained

What will happen to your comments

A summary of the consultation comments, prepared by the NICE quality standards team, and the full set of consultation comments will be shared with the Quality Standards Advisory Committee (QSAC). The QSAC will then meet to review the comments and the quality standard will refined with input from the QSAC chair and members.

Please note that NICE no longer responds to consultation comments submitted on NICE quality standards. Instead, following the publication of the quality standard, NICE will provide stakeholders who submitted comments with a link to the minutes of the meeting that will summarise the committee discussions and decisions. In addition, NICE will provide a link to the summary document that was considered by the QSAC.

NICE reserves the right to summarise and edit comments received during consultations, or not to publish them at all, where in the reasonable opinion of the Institute, the comments are voluminous, publication would be unlawful or publication would be otherwise inappropriate.

Acknowledgement of comments

You should receive an automated acknowledgement from the email box when you email your comments. If you do not receive this acknowledgement, please contact the quality standards coordinator to ensure your comments have been safely received by emailing lee.berry@nice.org.uk.

Comments received in the course of consultations carried out by the Institute are published in the interests of openness and transparency. The comments are published as a record of the submissions that the Institute has received, and are not endorsed by the Institute, its officers or advisory committees.

Endorsing NICE Quality Standards

If you would like your organisation to endorse this quality standard please email QualityStandards@nice.org.uk to express an interest. NICE is proud to jointly badge quality standards to help to achieve maximum dissemination among relevant audiences.

Those who endorse quality standards must be:

• National patient, carer, service user, voluntary, charity and non-governmental organisations that are run by, or directly reflect the perspectives of patients, service users, carers or client groups, and represent the interests of people whose care is covered by the quality standard in England.
• National organisations that represent the health or social care professionals who provide the services described in the quality standard in England.
• Statutory organisations (an organisation set up by government for a specific purpose) including Ofsted, Care Quality Commission (CQC), and Local Government Improvement and Development.