In summary, many homes are not meeting the Health
and Social Care Act requirements to ‘ensure that people
who have developed an infection are identified promptly’, or
to ‘provide adequate isolation’. Our findings regarding management
of human waste suggest that some homes are
failing to ‘provide and maintain a clean and appropriate
environment that facilitates the prevention and control of
infections’, in line with the pending Health and Social Care
Act requirements. Our study has identified some specific areas for improvement, particularly rapid isolation and
testing of residents with potentially infectious diarrhoea,
appropriate use of personal protective equipment and safer
management of human waste.