On the 6 March a Scoping Workshop was held in Sydney. The Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control (ACIPC) Representative Terry McAculey provided feedback to Standards Australia on ACIPC’s behalf.
The Scoping Workshop was organised in response to the large volume of enquiries on AS/NZS 4187 & AS/NZS 4815 and was an opportunity for HE-023 Committee members and industry to clarify the relationship of the two documents, and to identify steps to resolve the current confusion.
The objectives of the Workshop were to:
- Identify and discuss key issues involving the use of these Standards
- Discuss, and if possible agree, a direction for AS/NZS 4815 & AS/NZS 4187
- One Standard vs. two Standards
- What the Standard is trying to achieve
- What needs to be changed to address the issues
- Agree on next steps and time-frames.
The outcome of the Workshop was a resolution for the development of one Standard (new designation) applicable across all sectors in health, with provision of supporting guidance documents written in plain English.
A project proposal will be drafted by the Australian Dental Association in collaboration with the stakeholders represented at the Workshop. It is intended for this proposal to be submitted for review in the August 2018 Standards Australia Prioritization Round.
It was reinforced by Standards Australia that until a Standard has been published to supersede the current documents, the status quo remains.
