Infection and Contamination Control Policy

Purpose. This policy sets the standard precautions and additional controls that every worker must apply when transferring, handling, preparing or encoffining a deceased person, and when cleaning vehicles, cool rooms and mortuary equipment.

1.Purpose and scope

Every deceased person is treated as potentially infectious. This policy applies to transfer staff, mortuary staff, bearers, funeral directors who attend viewings, cleaners and any student or contractor who enters the mortuary or a transfer vehicle. It draws on the infection control guidelines for the funeral industry and the national guidelines for the prevention and control of infection in healthcare.

2.Standard precautions

Standard precautions must be applied to every case regardless of known diagnosis. Hand hygiene will be performed before and after every contact, before gloving and after degloving. Personal protective equipment for handling a deceased person is a minimum of nitrile gloves, a fluid-resistant gown or apron, and eye protection where splash is possible. Mortuary procedures require a fluid-resistant gown, double gloves, face shield, boots or overshoes and a respirator where aerosols or formaldehyde are present.

• Hand hygiene with soap and water or alcohol rub
• Gloves changed between tasks and never worn outside the work area
• Body fluids contained with absorbent material and a body bag when required
• Sharps disposed of at the point of use in approved containers
• Linen and clothing bagged and laundered or disposed of as clinical waste

3.Additional precautions

Where the medical certificate, the coroner or the hospital identifies an infectious disease, the Mortuary Manager will determine the additional precautions before the deceased is released from refrigeration. Cases with prescribed infectious conditions will be transferred in a sealed body bag, will not be embalmed unless the Mortuary Manager approves in writing, and viewing will be limited or refused where the risk cannot be controlled. The decision and reasons will be recorded in the mortuary care register.

4.Cleaning and sterilisation

Mortuary surfaces, tables and trolleys must be cleaned and disinfected with an approved hospital-grade disinfectant after every case. Reusable instruments will be cleaned, then sterilised in the bench-top steriliser and the cycle recorded in the sterilisation log. Transfer vehicles and stretchers will be cleaned after every transfer and deep cleaned weekly. Cool rooms will be cleaned weekly and after any leak or spill.

5.Waste management

Clinical and related waste, sharps and embalming waste must be segregated at the point of generation into the correct colour-coded container and collected by the licensed clinical waste contractor. Waste manifests will be retained for the period required by the environment protection regulations. Trade waste from the embalming theatre discharges only through the approved treatment system.

6.Exposure incidents

A needle-stick, splash to mucous membranes or contact with broken skin is an exposure incident. The worker must wash the area immediately, report to their supervisor and attend a medical practitioner or emergency department the same day. The supervisor will record the incident in the WHS incident register within two hours and will inform the Compliance and Records Manager. Post-exposure follow-up will be arranged and recorded confidentially.

7.Training and competence

All workers who handle deceased persons will complete infection control induction before their first transfer and refresher training every twelve months. Competence in donning and doffing PPE will be observed and signed off by the Mortuary Manager or a delegate. Training records will be held by the Compliance and Records Manager.