Interview with Paul Elkington: Benefits of personal respirators for healthcare staff safety

Summary

When the Covid-19 pandemic arrived in the UK in March 2020, Professor Paul Elkington and a team at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS) quickly developed a new form of respiratory protective equipment (RPE) called PeRSo (Personal Respirator Southampton) for hospital staff to use. PeRSo is a portable, wearable device which blows air through a HEPA filter into a hood, providing a high level of protection against respiratory infection.

Content

In this interview, Paul describes how, working with industry partners, his team was able to provide 3,500 members of staff at UHS with PeRSo during the pandemic. Describing the impact this had on staff morale and Covid infection rates, he explains why PeRSo is a preferable alternative to the FFP3 masks recommended by the Government during the pandemic.

Paul outlines how, in the event of another pandemic, providing personal respirators would offer effective protection for healthcare workers and the wider population at relatively low cost. He also outlines what the Government needs to do to ensure the UK is prepared for future pandemics, including making changes to the regulatory framework and incentivising the development of personal respirators designed specifically for infection control.

Further reading on the hub:

• A personal respirator to improve protection for healthcare workers treating Covid-19 (PeRSo)
• Powered respirators are effective, sustainable and cost-effective Personal Protective Equipment for SARS-CoV-2
• Respiratory protective equipment: An unequal solution for healthcare workers? A blog by David Osborn
• "Forgotten heroes" – the sequel: a blog and resources from David Osborn

About the author

Paul Elkington is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Southampton and Honorary Consultant in Respiratory Medicine. He trained in medicine in Oxford from 1988–1995 and then at London teaching hospitals from 1995–2007, in addition to working in rural Zambia. 

His research interest is tuberculosis infection, from basic disease mechanisms to the development of new diagnostic tests. He was awarded an MBE in 2020 for developing the PeRSo respirator to protect healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and over 3,500 PeRSos were in use in Southampton General Hospital in wave 2.