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Health clearance
Ministers set up an expert group in 2001 to assess the potential health risks posed to patients from health care workers new to the NHS infected with serious communicable diseases, in particular HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and tuberculosis, and to report back on options to minimise these risks. The expert group reported back to Ministers with their recommendations. These recommendations have been accepted by Ministers and formed the basis of draft guidance which was issued for consultation in 2003.
The Department received a large number of responses to the consultation and these are being considered for incorporation into the final guidance, which will be published later this year for implementation. The guidance will be published on the Department of Health website and widely publicised.
The draft guidance ‘Health Clearance for Serious Communicable Diseases: New Health Care Workers’ proposes that all new health care workers will need to have standard health clearance for serious communicable diseases. Additional health clearance for blood-borne viruses will be needed for new health care workers who will perform exposure prone procedures. The new proposals are not intended to prevent those infected with blood-borne viruses from working in the NHS, but to restrict them from working in those clinical areas where their infection may pose a risk to patients in their care. This is consistent with existing policy, which imposes restrictions on the working practices of those health care workers known to be infectious carriers of HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
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