UK Advisory Panel for Healthcare Workers Living with Bloodborne Viruses (UKAP)
UKAP gives advice about the transmission and management of bloodborne viruses among healthcare workers (HCWs).
Role
UKAP gives advice and guidance on HCWs living with HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. The panel also provides support for local incident management teams and maintains a monitoring register of HCWs living with HIV and hepatitis B who perform exposure prone procedures (EPPs).
Terms of reference
The panel’s terms of reference are to:
- establish, and update as necessary, criteria on which local advice on modifying working practices may be based
- provide supplementary specialist occupational advice to physicians of HCWs living with bloodborne viruses, occupational physicians and professional bodies
- advise individual HCWs or their advocates how to obtain guidance on working practices
- advise directors of public health on patient notification exercises, where these are indicated, of patients treated by HCWs living with bloodborne viruses
- keep under review the literature on occupational transmission of bloodborne viruses and revise guidelines as necessary
Membership
The Chief Executive of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) appoints members with specialist medical and scientific expertise, as well as lay members. The current list of members on the UKAP panel are as follows:
- Dr Christopher Conlon (Infectious Diseases expert)
- Dr Mat Donati (Virology expert)
- Ms Kay Francis (Midwifery expert)
- Dr Prosenjit Giri (Occupational Health expert)
- Dr Ali Hashtroudi (Occupational Health expert)
- Dr David Hawkins (Deputy Chair and Genitourinary Medicine expert)
- Dr George Kassianos (General Practice expert)
- Dr Patrick Kennedy (Clinical Hepatology expert)
- Ms Helen Kirk (Occupational Health Nursing expert)
- Dr Vanessa MacGregor (Communicable Disease Control expert)
- Dr Wendy Matthews (Emergency Medicine expert)
- Dr Kirsty Roy (Health Protection expert)
- Dr Richard Smith (Obstetrics and Gynaecology expert)
- Dr Melanie Wilson (Dental expert)
- Dr Kay Thomas (Surgical expert)
Observers
- Dr Naresh Chada (Northern Irish Observer)
- Ms Emma Stapley (English Observer)
- Amelia Whorley (English Observer)
- Stephen Milner (English Observer)
- Dr Marion Lyons (Welsh Observer)
- Dr Gill Hawkins (Scottish Observer)
Publications
COVID-19: UKAP statement on health clearance and monitoring
BBVs in healthcare workers: health clearance and management
Hepatitis C: risk in healthcare workers pre 2007 clearance review
Exposure prone procedures categorisation documents
Emergency healthcare workers: exposure prone procedures
General dentistry exposure prone procedure categorisation
General surgery exposure prone procedure categorisation
Obstetrics and gynaecology exposure prone procedure categorisation
Urology exposure prone procedure categorisation
Vascular surgery: exposure prone procedure categories
UKAP publications published before 2014, and relevant guidelines on healthcare worker clearance, HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C, are available from the archived UKAP webpage, courtesy National Archive.
Enquiries and support
Advice from the UKAP secretariat
If you are concerned following the identification of a HCW living with a bloodborne virus, please fill in the UKAP enquiry form. The information in this form will help guide investigations into whether further actions may be needed.
For all other queries, please contact the UKAP secretariat at ukap@ukhsa.gov.uk
If you are sending personal identifiable information (PII) about a UKAP enquiry from another NHS.net email account, please email phe.ukap@nhs.net
UKAP Occupational Health Monitoring Register (UKAP-OHR)
In March 2024, the UKAP secretariat obtained approval from the UKHSA Chief Executive and the Chief Medical Officer for England to decommission the UKAP-OHR. All data for the period to end of 2023 will be obtained, but occupational health teams are no longer required to register HCWs to the UKAP-OHR.
We would like to emphasise the importance of following all other UKAP guidance and occupational health teams maintaining local records of HCWs living with HIV or hepatitis B performing EPPs.