# Central line and port care in the community and at home

Source: https://onco.cc/protocols/community-care-of-vascular-access-devices/  
OnCo record `community-care-of-vascular-access-devices` (Protocol). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

If you go home with a PICC, tunnelled line or port, a community or district nurse may look after it, or you or a carer may be taught to. You should be shown what to do before you leave hospital, have someone to ask afterwards, and the nurse should clean their hands, use a clean no-touch technique, change the clear dressing weekly and clean the end of the line before and after use.

## Summary

NICE CG139 (2012, updated 2017) is the UK guideline for infection prevention in primary and community care, and NICE QS61 (2014) statement 5 makes vascular access device care a quality standard: people with a device should have their infection risk minimised by completing specified procedures for insertion and maintenance, and by removal as soon as it is no longer needed, with a written protocol as the structure measure. Before discharge, patients and carers are taught any techniques they need to prevent infection and manage the device, with follow-up training and support available; community staff are trained and assessed as competent. The care itself is the hospital standard: hand decontamination before access or dressing; aseptic technique (ANTT named as one framework); a sterile transparent dressing over a central line changed every 7 days or sooner if lifting or damp; chlorhexidine in 70% alcohol on the hub before and after access (QS61 adds a 15-second clean, from epic3); saline to flush and lock; and daily inspection of central line sites. Many of these recommendations date from 2003 and none is graded.

## Fields

- Kind: Protocol
- Last checked: 2026-11-11
- Also known as: district nurse line care; community PICC care; PICC care at home; port flush in the community; line care after discharge; home line care

## Connected records

- protocols: [Blocked central line or port: assessment and clearing with a thrombolytic](https://onco.cc/protocols/central-line-occlusion-management/), [Blood sampling from a central line or port](https://onco.cc/protocols/blood-sampling-from-a-central-line/), [Central line maintenance bundle: preventing bloodstream infection after insertion](https://onco.cc/protocols/central-line-maintenance-bundle/), [Implanted port access, flushing and care in adults having cancer treatment](https://onco.cc/protocols/implanted-port-access-and-care/), [PICC and tunnelled central line care: dressing, hub cleaning, flushing and living with the line](https://onco.cc/protocols/picc-and-tunnelled-line-care/)
- technologies: [Catheter securement devices and dressings (SecurAcath, Tegaderm CHG)](https://onco.cc/technologies/catheter-securement-devices/), [Implanted ports for chemotherapy (port-a-cath, power-injectable, apheresis and intraperitoneal ports)](https://onco.cc/technologies/implanted-ports/), [Peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC lines)](https://onco.cc/technologies/picc-lines/)
- terms: [Central venous access (port, PICC line)](https://onco.cc/terms/central-venous-access/)

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