KARACHI:Sindh Health Department has established Sindh Infection Prevention and Control Cell (SIPCC) to supervise the standardization and implementation of infection prevention and control polices and standard, technical guidance and monitoring of all infection prevention and control activities at all healthcare establishments.
As per a notification, the Special Secretary (PH) (coordinator), Dr Shabnum Karim, OSD Public Health (deputy coordinator) and Shakeel Ahmed (secretary) have been posted to supervise the cell.
The terms of references (ToRs) are: SIPCC will work on WHO guidelines on core components of infection prevention and control programs at the National and Acute Health Care Facility level. However, newly proposed clinical rationalized guidelines will be updated from time to time.
The cell will report to special secretary (public health) and further support under the guidance of secretary health. It will also oversee the infection prevention and control (IPC) TWGs/ Focal Points at all levels.
It will also ensure the coordinating efforts of sub-committee/ health care facilities to improve the quality of IPC at all levels of health care settings, developing or adopting an IPC team establishing a system for monitoring and evaluation. The cell will also ensure the formulation of monitoring, evaluation and reporting key performance indicators (KPIs).
The SIPCC will formulate strategies/ planning under recommendations of IPC steering committee for implementation at all levels. To formulate structure and organogram for IPC cell will also be ensured by this SIPCC. The SIPCC will nominate the focal person for media briefing.