Standard Infection Control Precautions in Hospitals | 2026 Guide
Most healthcare-associated infections are preventable. Not through new technology or complex protocols, but through ten baseline precautions applied by every member of staff, every time.
This guide covers the 10 Standard Infection Control Precautions (SICPs) as defined in the NHS England National Infection Prevention and Control Manual (NIPCM), updated to version 2.12 in April 2026. It is written for ward nurses, infection prevention leads, and clinical managers in NHS hospitals and healthcare facilities across the UK.
What Are Standard Infection Control Precautions?
SICPs are the baseline infection prevention measures every healthcare worker must apply with every patient at all times, whether or not an infection is known or suspected. They are not a response to a diagnosis. They are how infections get stopped before they start.
SICPs apply before you know there is a problem. That is the point of them.
The NHS England NIPCM defines 10 SICPs. When a specific pathogen requires extra controls, Transmission-Based Precautions (contact, droplet, or airborne) get added on top. TBPs are always in addition to SICPs. They never replace them.
C. difficile rates in England hit their highest level for eight years in March 2025, at 23.3 cases per 100,000 bed days (UKHSA). The NIPCM was updated to v2.12 in April 2026. Consistent application of SICPs is still the most effective tool available.
The 10 Standard Infection Control Precautions
Hand Hygiene
The single most effective infection prevention measure available. The WHO 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene define when it must happen: before patient contact, before a clean or aseptic procedure, after body fluid exposure risk, after patient contact, and after touching the patient’s surroundings. Worth noting that C. difficile spores are not killed by alcohol-based hand rub. Soap and water is required.
Respiratory and Cough Hygiene
All staff, patients, and visitors must cover the nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, dispose of tissues promptly, and clean their hands immediately afterwards. Tissues and hand hygiene facilities must be available at ward entry. Surgical masks should be available for patients with respiratory symptoms.
Patient Placement and Infection Risk Assessment
Every patient must be assessed for infection risk on admission and throughout their stay. Those with known or suspected transmissible infections should be placed in a single room where possible. Where single rooms are unavailable, a documented risk assessment must determine whether cohorting is appropriate, and that decision must be reviewed at every shift.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
PPE selection needs to be based on a genuine risk assessment of the procedure and the likely route of exposure, not selected out of habit. It must be donned before the activity and doffed in the correct sequence immediately after to avoid self-contamination. Single-use PPE must never be reused between patients.
Safe Management of Care Equipment
All reusable equipment must be decontaminated between patients in line with manufacturer instructions and local policy. Single-use equipment must not be reused. Shared devices such as thermometers, blood pressure cuffs, and pulse oximeters are a well-documented cross-contamination risk when decontamination gets delayed or skipped under time pressure. Device design matters as much as clinical accuracy when it comes to procurement.
Safe Management of the Care Environment
The ward environment needs to be visibly clean at all times, with documented and audited cleaning schedules in place. High-touch surfaces need more frequent attention. A full terminal clean is required when a patient is discharged from any bed space, and it must be signed off before the space is used again.
Safe Management of Linen
Used linen should be bagged immediately at the point of use. It should never be sorted, shaken, or carried against clothing before bagging. Linen contaminated with blood or body fluids goes into a water-soluble alginate bag before the outer linen bag. Separate pathways apply for patients in isolation.
Safe Management of Blood and Body Fluid Spillages
Spillages must be dealt with immediately using a chlorine-releasing agent at the correct concentration, with PPE worn throughout. All significant spillages must be documented and reported. Staff must know the local procedure and have access to spillage kits on the ward.
Safe Disposal of Waste Including Sharps
Clinical waste should be segregated at the point of generation into the correct colour-coded stream. Sharps need to go into an approved UN3291 container immediately after use, at the point of care, by the person who used them. They should never be left for someone else to clear up.
Occupational Exposure Management
Clear procedures for managing needlestick injuries, blood splashes, and pathogen exposure need to be accessible to all clinical staff, not buried in a folder. All exposures must be reported through the incident system. Vaccination against hepatitis B and seasonal influenza is a standard requirement for clinical staff.
Common Hospital-Acquired Infections
Knowing which HAIs are most common helps ward teams understand where the precautions matter most and why none of them can be quietly deprioritised.
- MRSA bacteraemia. Spread via direct contact through healthcare workers’ hands or contaminated equipment. Subject to mandatory NHS reporting. Admission screening is mandated for defined patient groups.
- C. difficile infection. Transmitted via the faecal-oral route through contaminated surfaces and hands. Spores survive standard alcohol-based cleaning, so soap and water is required. Antibiotic stewardship plays a big role here alongside SICPs.
- Surgical site infections. Highly preventable. Prevention depends on pre-operative skin preparation, intraoperative aseptic technique, and appropriate prophylactic antibiotic use. SSIs significantly extend hospital stays and increase readmission rates.
- Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI). Occur when bacteria enter the bloodstream through a central venous catheter. Aseptic insertion technique, daily catheter necessity review, and standardised care bundles are the primary prevention measures.
- Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI). The most common HAI in acute settings. Strongly associated with duration of catheterisation. Daily review of catheter necessity is the most effective single intervention.
- Ventilator-associated pneumonia. Affects mechanically ventilated ICU patients. Prevention depends on oral hygiene, head-of-bed elevation, and sedation minimisation. A key quality indicator in critical care.
Why Equipment Choice Matters for Infection Control
Safe management of care equipment is consistently the most variable area when IPC teams carry out compliance audits. In busy ward environments, decontamination between patients gets delayed or cut short. That is usually a systems problem, not a training problem.
Thermometers are a straightforward example. Most NHS wards use tympanic thermometers with probe covers. When covers run out, which ward nurses report happening regularly, the options are to delay measurement, proceed without adequate protection, or document without actually measuring. None of those is acceptable.
TRITEMP™ measures temperature from 3 to 5cm from the patient’s forehead using infrared technology. No physical contact, no consumables, no cleaning required between patients. Used in NHS Trusts, HSE Ireland, and hospitals across more than 20 countries. Available via NHS Supply Chain.
Ward-Level Infection Control Checklist
A practical aide-memoire for ward staff reflecting the 10 SICPs. Use it alongside your organisation’s local IPC policies, not as a replacement for them.
Frequently Asked Questions
The 10 SICPs defined in the NHS England NIPCM (v2.12, April 2026) are: hand hygiene, respiratory and cough hygiene, patient placement and infection risk assessment, personal protective equipment, safe management of care equipment, safe management of the care environment, safe management of linen, safe management of blood and body fluid spillages, safe disposal of waste including sharps, and occupational exposure management. All 10 apply to all staff, at all times, with all patients.
SICPs are baseline measures applied to every patient regardless of infection status. Transmission-Based Precautions are additional controls added on top when a specific pathogen requires it, covering contact, droplet, or airborne routes. They never replace SICPs.
They remove a specific compliance failure from SICP 5. When probe cover supply runs out with tympanic thermometers, temperature measurement gets delayed or quietly skipped. The TRITEMP™ needs no contact and no consumables, so safe thermometry becomes the path of least resistance rather than an extra task.
- NHS England. National Infection Prevention and Control Manual for England, v2.12. Updated April 2026.
- World Health Organization. Hand Hygiene in Healthcare. who.int
- World Health Organization. Infection Prevention and Control. who.int
- UKHSA. Healthcare-associated infections: guidance, data and analysis. gov.uk
- Department of Health and Social Care. Health and Social Care Act 2008: Code of Practice on the Prevention and Control of Infections. gov.uk
- TriMedika. TRITEMP™ hospital case studies. trimedika.com
About TriMedika
TriMedika manufactures the TRITEMP™ non-contact thermometer, used in over 1,000 hospitals worldwide including NHS Trusts and HSE Ireland. We work with infection prevention leads and ward managers on evidence-based thermometry decisions.
