Practice Plus Group Hospital Shepton Mallet is one of around just 10 clinical facilities in the country to have achieved silver accreditation in an internationally-recognised infection control regime.

The hospital, which was previously known as the Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre, has achieved the silver accreditation in the Aseptic Non Touch Technique (ANTT), developed and disseminated by the Association for Safe Aseptic Practice (ASAP).

It is the de facto national standard aseptic technique in England, Australia and Wales, is used in more than 30 countries and is rapidly expanding.

"Asepsis" means the absence of bacteria, viruses and other infectious organisms. ANTT is a regime which instils root and branch practices across a whole clinical organisation to further reduce the risk of acquired infection.

It does this by providing guiding principles, clinical guidelines and frameworks for implementation.

In order to achieve the accreditation, infection control link nurses led by infection control lead Susan Needham at Practice Plus Group Hospital Shepton Mallet were trained in ANTT.

They then had to carry out a hospital-wide audit, which involved observing aseptic techniques and assessing how safely they were being conducted.

The minimum to be observed was 50 and the hospital achieved 58. Once that was completed they had to ensure that at least 50 per cent of the staff in the hospital, who conducted any kind of aseptic technique, were competent to do so.

Susan said: "We also had to review equipment and practices, and make changes where necessary.

"The whole thing took over a year to achieve and there was a lot of hard work, especially by the link nurses working in their departments.

"We were striving to achieve the bronze award and would have been happy with that, but we achieved silver, which is remarkable and we are very proud.

"We have always taken infection control seriously. With the added risk from Covid-19 we are pleased that we were forward-thinking and achieved this accreditation so that ANTT can be implemented now – it is another reason why our patients can feel safe and well cared-for at this hospital."

Andrew Oakerbee, hospital director at Practice Plus Group Hospital Shepton Mallet, said: "I am extremely proud of Sue and our clinical teams for achieving silver ANTT accreditation.

"We strive to ensure that when it comes to quality of care, our patients always have access to excellence and this is a fine example of our commitment to that principle."

Stephen Rowley, clinical director for the ASAP and ANTT, said: "Susan and her team have worked hard and should be congratulated for their commitment.

"It's always heartening for us to see such staff and organisations take the risks of aseptic technique seriously and take robust steps to make improvements for patient safety."

Practice Plus Group Hospital Shepton Mallet is the first hospital of its kind to be rated as Outstanding across the board by the Care Quality Commission.

The national Patient Reported Outcome Measures reported by the Health and Social Care Information Centre recently identified the hospital as top in the country for hip replacements, and in the top five per cent for knee replacements.