HIW will resume routine NHS onsite inspection work
Planned inspection programme will continue in full from 1 February 2022.
Following the move to alert level 0 across Wales on 28 January 2022, and the general decreasing trend in rates of COVID-19, all routine NHS onsite inspections will resume as normal this month. We will continue to risk assess every piece of work that is planned.
We will continue to provide around 24 hours’ notice for ‘green’, and elective, scheduled pathway inspections. This allows our teams to communicate with NHS staff and for arrangements to be put in place so that the inspection can be undertaken safely. Our expectation is that this will be the approach for all inspections that fall into this category, however, we must still reserve the right to operate in a fully unannounced way where we determine there to be an extremely high risk to patient safety as a result of the way a service is operating. We will review this position in March 2022.
Our work programme for independent healthcare settings and dental practices remains unchanged.
We will continue to review our work programme and ensure it is proportionate given the ongoing pandemic situation.