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Found 287 results
  1. News Article
    Care home staff were without personal protective equipment (PPE) early in the pandemic because the government prioritised the NHS, MPs have said. The Commons Public Accounts Committee said care homes received only a fraction of the PPE needed compared with the health service. It said social care "was only taken seriously after the high mortality rate in care homes became apparent". The government said it worked "tirelessly" to provide PPE. The report from the Public Accounts Committee said many healthcare workers were put in an "appalling situation" where they had to care for people with Covid-19 or suspected Covid-19 "without sufficient PPE to protect themselves from infection". It said the social care sector did not receive "anywhere near enough" to meet its needs. Health and social care staff suffered PPE shortages, it said, with some forced to reuse single-use items as stocks ran "perilously low". Read full story Source: BBC News, 10 February 2021
  2. News Article
    The use of ten million surgical gowns, bought by the UK government, has been suspended for frontline NHS staff because of how the items were packaged. Sterile gowns were bought for £70m from a US firm last year, but safety concerns were raised when they arrived in one layer of protective packaging. The contract had not requested double packaging, as used in sterile settings. The government says all personal protective equipment (PPE) is quality assured, but Labour has called for an inquiry into the awarding of contracts. The BBC has been investigating the purchase of PPE - or personal protective equipment - for NHS staff since the beginning of the pandemic. It has already been revealed how millions of face masks bought by the UK government cannot be used in the NHS as intended. Read full story Source: BBC News, 8 February 2021
  3. News Article
    NHS hospitals are defying official rules to give nurses and doctors masks with greater protection amid fears over the spread of coronavirus within hospital wards. An analysis of the latest NHS data by The Independent shows more than 35,000 patients were likely to have been infected with coronavirus while already in hospital between 1 August and 31 January. NHS England has estimated as many as 20% of infections could be due to spread within hospitals. Outbreaks at some hospitals have seen whole teams of doctors or nurses affected, in some cases leading to wards having to be closed. The Independent has learnt several hospitals are now supplying higher grade masks to staff working in general wards, despite Public Health England saying only surgical masks are needed. Research this week suggested staff exposed to coughing were at greatest risk of infection from the virus. Read full story Source: The Independent, 7 February 2021
  4. News Article
    Care homes in England operated by profitable chains have been branded unsafe by inspectors, who found serious failures in efforts to control the spread of coronavirus in its latest wave. In the last month 40% of care homes inspected by the Care Quality Commission in England were judged to be inadequate or in need of improvement. Several handling fatal coronavirus outbreaks were revealed to have broken laws meant to keep residents safe. Some of the worst failings uncovered in reports filed in the last month include CCTV showing PPE being used wrongly on 63 occasions in one home, infected residents mixing in communal areas with Covid-free residents, chronic staff shortages, and a care home manager continuing to work after showing Covid symptoms. The spate of problems relates to a small minority of care homes but coincides with a tripling of fatalities linked to the virus among care residents in England and Wales. Read full story Source: 4 February 2021
  5. News Article
    The NHS has been urged to rethink safety for thousands of frontline staff after new research suggested that Covid patients’ coughing is putting them at far greater risk of catching the virus than previously thought. The study found that coughing generated at least 10 times more infectious “aerosol” particles than speaking or breathing – which could explain why so many NHS staff have fallen ill during the pandemic. The research has led to fresh demands that anyone caring for someone with Covid-19, or suspected Covid-19, should be provided with the most protective equipment – including FFP3 respirator masks – and that hospital ventilation should be improved. Health workers are up to four times more likely to contract coronavirus than the general population, with infection rates among those on general hospital wards approximately double those of intensive care unit (ICU) staff – who do have access to the most protective PPE. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 3 January 2021
  6. Content Article
    At the beginning of 2020, before the coronavirus (COVID-19) started spreading, many people had no idea they may own a face mask in their lifetime. Today, almost everyone has one. In the Asian countries where people are used to wearing face masks, many took them in their stride. Questions lingered in other parts of the world as some expressed doubts about the value of face masks and coverings in slowing down the coronavirus spread. As face masks become the new normal in many parts of the world, many different types of masks, including home-made cloth masks, surgical masks, and cone style masks, have become more common. To an ordinary person who has little knowledge about masks, it can be challenging to determine the right mask for adequate protection. Shandong Deqi Intelligent Technology Co.,Ltd, a surgical face mask making company in China, in this article answers some of the most common questions about face masks and face protection. With all the fake news and incorrect information spreading around, they aim to separate fact from myth.  
  7. News Article
    Rotating clinicians and keeping ventilation running are among Public Health England’s (PHE) recommendations for how to avoid spreading covid while looking after patients in the back of ambulances outside emergency departments. The suggestions are made in unprecedented new guidance issued by PHE amid sky-high rates of very long ambulance handovers outside hospitals. This is because emergency departments (EDs) are struggling with attempts to maintain distancing for infection control, along with high occupancy and severe operational pressures elsewhere in hospitals. It has led over the past two months to large numbers of patients being looked after in ambulances for extended times while they wait for space in ED. The PHE guidance, added last week to existing covid guidance for ambulance services, says it should only happen in “exceptional circumstances”. But it says staff in this situation should adopt infection prevention and control procedures including: if more than one clinician is available, rotating them regularly, so allowing them time to change PPE and have a drink; keeping ventilation systems running which may require the engine to be kept running; ensuring patients and any essential escorts wear surgical masks, as long as patient care is not compromised; minimising the number of people within the patient compartment and avoiding sitting face-to-face with patients; and decontaminating contact surfaces more frequently and during the delay if possible. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 25 January 2021
  8. News Article
    A thousand health professionals have backed an appeal for hospital staff to be given improved personal protective equipment. In an open letter to UK political leaders, they say there is growing evidence that tiny coronavirus particles can spread through the air. The group want general ward staff to be given the type of high-quality masks usually only worn in intensive care. Nurses' leaders said higher level PPE should be provided as a "precaution". Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 January 2021
  9. Content Article
    University College London (UCL) Hospitals have produced this joint guide with Performing Medicine for using personal protective equipment (PPE) informed by insights from actors used to wearing restrictive costumes. Although healthcare workers wearing PPE have an entirely different purpose and are working in an intensely emotional and demanding context, actors have useful, practical advice to share about challenges such as orientation, communication and movement in challenging clothing and equipment. Performing Medicine has been providing courses for healthcare professionals for over 15 years. They draw on arts-based approaches and methods to teach skills relevant to clinical practice. 
  10. Content Article
    The increased use of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic has added challenges for healthcare workers and accessing the right PPE, or having the right equipment and staff, can be difficult. This guidance from Royal College of Physicians (RCP) aims to help individuals working in healthcare to ensure PPE use does not impair patient safety. This guidance, created by the RCP Medicine Safety Joint Working Group and led by the RCP’s Medicines safety clinical fellow, Jennifer Flatman, aims to raise awareness of key issues relating to the use of PPE. It includes recommendations on how you can help to mitigate against patient safety issues related to PPE in your healthcare environment and considers scenarios such as use of PPE when performing tasks and situational awareness.
  11. News Article
    Thousands of frontline workers delivering treatments where the risk of transmitting coronavirus is heightened are still being denied personal protective equipment (PPE), according to multiple unions and professional bodies. Eleven organisations, including Unison and the British Association of Stroke Physicians, believe numerous procedures have been “wrongly excluded” from the list of 13 “aerosol generating procedures” that require PPE, despite the NHS now having adequate supplies. They say their members are “facing illness and even death” while performing procedures such as chest physiotherapy, introducing feeding tubes, and assessing whether a patient can swallow safely. The unions have formed an alliance to lobby on the issue, and its chair Dr Barry Jones told HSJ: “We’ve asked ministers and the Department of Health and Social Care again and again to take action and provide PPE to frontline NHS staff carrying out procedures which are not currently listed as AGPs but which the scientific evidence shows should be. Read full story Source: HSJ, 13 November 2020
  12. News Article
    Some disabled people in the UK have been struggling to obtain essentials such as medication and breathing equipment during the Covid pandemic, research for the BBC suggests. Some 60% of those who rely on social care told a YouGov survey they were finding it hard to obtain at least one of their necessities. Charity WellChild said people felt more "forgotten than they ever have been". But ministers say the needs of disabled people were being considered. The Department of Health and Social Care says it has sufficient stocks and patients should contact their local care provider. Like one in 20 of those survey respondents who receive social care, Fi Anderson, a mother of two with muscular dystrophy from Bolton in Greater Manchester, said she has faced problems obtaining breathing apparatus. Her local hospital told her to re-use the filter for her portable ventilator, recommending she boil it, because supplies were so short. Disabled people who rely on social care - which funds equipment and other support to allow them to live independent lives - also said they had struggled to obtain personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face masks. Many of them receive funding directly to employ carers in their home, so they also need to provide them with PPE during the coronavirus crisis. The survey, which the BBC commissioned to mark the 25th anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act, asked more than 1,000 people about life in the UK with a disability and how it has changed in the shadow of a pandemic. More than 65% felt their rights had regressed, and 71% said disabled people's needs had been overlooked. The Coronavirus Act, which granted the government emergency powers, gave local councils the ability to reduce care, education and mental health provision for disabled people if it became necessary during the pandemic. According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, nearly six out of 10 deaths from COVID-19 were of disabled people. Read full story Source: BBC News,
  13. News Article
    NHS staff and their families accounted for one in six patients in hospital with Covid, due in part to inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE), new research suggests. A study of hospitals from March to June revealed that healthcare workers in patient-facing roles were around three times more likely to be hospitalised with the virus than the general population. Writing in the BMJ, the study's authors called for an urgent focus on how COVID-19 spreads around hospitals to prevent a similar toll in future waves of the pandemic. They also call for hospitals to consider re-deploying staff with vulnerable family members away from high-risk zones. Read full story Source: The Telegraph, 29 October 2020
  14. Content Article
    Healthcare workers and their families account for 17% of hospital admissions for COVID-19 in the working age population (18-65 years), finds new research published in the BMJ. Shah et al. assessed the risk of hospital admission for COVID-19 among patient facing and non-patient facing healthcare workers and their household members. The study revealed that healthcare workers in patient-facing roles were around three times more likely to be hospitalised with the virus than the general population. The authors call for an urgent focus on how COVID-19 spreads around hospitals to prevent a similar toll in future waves of the pandemic. They also call for hospitals to consider re-deploying staff with vulnerable family members away from high-risk zones.
  15. News Article
    With so many operations put on hold when the pandemic started in March, surgeon Douglas Hartley and a team of medical veterans got to work pioneering new types of protective equipment. When the coronavirus pandemic first hit the UK, thousands of surgical procedures were put on hold. For surgeons like Douglas, who performs operations on deaf children to restore their hearing, this created a significant moral dilemma – he wanted to get back into surgery to provide this vital care, but didn’t want to inadvertently catch or pass on COVID-19 in the process. Douglas regularly carries out cochlear implant surgery, a process in which a surgeon embeds an electronic device which stimulates the hearing nerve in the ear. The scientific evidence is clear that this surgery needs to be performed at the earliest opportunity so that these children can benefit from being able to hear at a vital stage in their development. But performing the surgery as normal would have put both children and surgical teams in danger. They needed to come up with another way of doing things. The team in Nottingham had to combine creativity and science to develop a novel and safe way to restart cochlear implant surgery in a matter of just a few weeks. The team used a systematic evidence-based approach to evaluate a variety of PPE for its usability and effectiveness. During simulated cochlear implant surgery, they evaluated each type of PPE across several parameters, including its effect on a surgeon’s ability to communicate, their field of vision, and their comfort. Many of the PPE options were found to substantially restrict the surgeon’s vision during operating. That rendered them unsafe for performing this sort of surgery. Instead, they found that the combination of “spoggles” and a half-face respirator mask had consistently superior performance across all aspects of clinical usability compared with all other options. During their studies, Douglas and his team also worked with a surgical product manufacturer to develop a novel drape, basically a tent, that was designed to be suspended from a microscope covering the patient’s head and torso to provide a physical barrier between the site of drilling and the rest of the team. They found that the operating tent significantly contained the droplets and prevented them from spreading around the theatre environment. They are the first – and are currently only – group in the world to develop an operating tent design that is marked for medical use. After completing our studies, we now had appropriate PPE and a protective operating tent to permit the safe restarting of cochlear implant surgery during the pandemic. These recommendations were rapidly disseminated internationally via webinars and journal publications and quickly adopted as standard patient care by Nottingham University NHS Foundation Trust and, subsequently, embraced in other departments in the UK and across the world. Read full story Source: The Independent, 22 October 2020
  16. News Article
    Care homes should refuse to take coronavirus patients from hospitals if they cannot prevent the spread of the disease, the care watchdog has told The Independent. Staff should admit these patients only if care homes are equipped with the right personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection prevention measures, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said. During the first wave of the pandemic, care homes saw widespread outbreaks of the virus with 16,000 deaths. Homes struggled to access protective clothing for staff and were forced to take 25,000 untested patients discharged from hospitals. In an in-depth interview, Kate Terroni, the CQC’s chief inspector of social care, said care homes should not be put under pressure during a second wave to take infected patients they could not properly look after. She said any home that refused to admit patients would have her support. “Care home providers should only admit a resident when they are confident they can meet their care needs, so where they are confident they’ve got good infection prevention control, they’ve got the right PPE, they’ve got the right workforce." “We will absolutely support a provider to say they cannot admit someone if those ingredients aren’t in place.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 12 October 2020,
  17. News Article
    Inspectors have demanded improvements from a hospital after a report highlighted a number of failings over COVID-19 precautions. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected the emergency department and medical wards at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent, on 11 August. Inspection teams visited a ward where patients showed symptoms and were awaiting test results as well as a ward caring for patients who had COVID-19. A ward for patients without the virus and a fourth ward where there had been an outbreak of COVID-19 were also inspected. The CQC said it took urgent enforcement action, telling the trust to ensure there was an "effective system to manage the health and safety of people using the hospital". The report revealed staff did not always wear PPE or face coverings correctly in medical wards. One member of the nursing team was seen to be wearing a mask incorrectly in the ward where there had been an outbreak of the coronavirus. At least seven members of staff were seen entering and leaving the ward caring for people who were suspected of having COVID-19 without adhering to hand hygiene practices. Staff did not always remove PPE upon entering a new clinical area of the emergency department. Nor did they always put on or take off their PPE when entering and leaving patient bays. While equipment was said to have been cleaned on the day, inspectors found this was not always recorded. The report also detailed that five members of staff were seen in one room that was too small to enable the practised social distancing in that space. East Kent Hospitals Trust chief executive Susan Acott said: "In August, a CQC inspection team visited the William Harvey Hospital and saw examples of practice which falls short of the high standard we all want to provide for our patients." "Keeping our patients and staff safe is our priority. We have responded to the CQC with the actions we are taking and we are committed to the care and safety of every patient in our hospitals." Read full story Source: BBC News, 7 October 2020
  18. News Article
    General practices will struggle to cope with a second wave of COVID-19 unless urgent measures are put in place to support them, the BMA has warned. It said that practices in England were reporting that they did not have the capacity to carry out all of the work required of them while managing ongoing patient care, dealing with the backlog of care put on hold during the first wave of the pandemic, and reconfiguring services. Richard Vautrey, chair of the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee England, said, “GPs, like all doctors, are extremely concerned that without decisive action now services will be overwhelmed if we see another spike in the coming weeks and months.” In the report, the committee called for a package of measures to support the GP workforce, including making occupational health services available to all staff to ensure that they are properly risk assessed and to provide free supplies of personal protective equipment. It also called for the suspension of routine inspections by the Care Quality Commission and of the Quality and Outcomes Framework, as part of efforts to reduce bureaucracy. NHS England’s covid support fund for practices should be rolled over until March 2021 and expanded to ensure that all additional costs such as additional telephony and cleaning are included, it added. Vautrey said, “The measures we’ve outlined are aimed at supporting practices and their staff to deliver high quality care while managing the increased pressures of doing so during a pandemic, and it is vital that the government and NHS England listen and implement these urgently, to ensure that primary care can continue to operate safely through what looks to be an incredibly difficult winter.” Read full story Source: BMJ, 1 October 2020
  19. Content Article
    Bubble PAPR is an innovative PPE respirator designed to keep NHS staff safe while caring for patients during COVID-19. In this video, Brendan McGrath, an NHS Intensive Care Consultant, describes how Manchester University Foundation Trust, Manchester University and Designing Science Ltd came together to re-invent the Powered Air Purifying Respirator for the covid era.
  20. Event
    Virimask is a full face mask designed to offer the ultimate protection and maximum comfort against 99.99% of micron-sized particles. Commonly used masks, such as the N95 are limited in continuous use and are not particularly comfortable, or hygienic in longer-term wear. Virimask is designed to last each user a lifetime and uses replaceable HEPA14 filters which block out viral transmission. Unique advantages include the exceptional ventilation and speech clarity, integrated eye protection and varied size range. In this live webinar, the inventor of Virimask, Professor Noam Gavriely, will give a background on Virimask and the challenges faced during the initial phase along with plans for future development. We will highlight the problems with the lack of PPE available during the COVID-19 outbreak and discuss how Virimask can assist our front line workers during the COVID-19 outbreak and any possible future pandemics. The webinar will include customer testimonials and insight to how the world has reacted to the PPE crisis. We will have live discussion and an opportunity for the audience to ask questions in our live Q&A. Registration
  21. Content Article
    This report sets out the progress and learning from the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in informing advice and recommendations to government and the social care sector. The Social Care Sector COVID-19 Support Taskforce was commissioned in June 2020, with this report seeing the completion of its work in August 2020. The taskforce was set up to oversee the delivery of two packages of support that the government had put in place for the care sector: the Social Care Action Plan and the Care Home Support Plan. In addition, the taskforce was asked to support the government's work on community outbreaks – areas of the country that needed particular help and intervention to deal with higher rates of infection – and advising and supporting local places to consider and respond to reducing the risk of infection in care homes and the wider social care sector. Its further remit was to provide advice on the requirements for the response to COVID-19 in the next few months, ahead of and into winter.
  22. Content Article
    This guidance from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) sets out: key messages to assist with planning and preparation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic so that local procedures can be put in place to minimise risk and provide the best possible support to people in supported living settings. safe systems of working including, social distancing, respiratory and hand hygiene and enhanced cleaning. how infection prevention and control (IPC) and personal protective equipment (PPE) applies to supported living settings.
  23. Content Article
    The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling on governments and healthcare leaders to address persistent threats to the health and safety of health workers and patients. “The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded all of us of the vital role health workers play to relieve suffering and save lives,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “No country, hospital or clinic can keep its patients safe unless it keeps its health workers safe. WHO’s Health Worker Safety Charter is a step towards ensuring that health workers have the safe working conditions, the training, the pay and the respect they deserve.” The pandemic has also highlighted the extent to which protecting health workers is key to ensuring a functioning health system and a functioning society. The WHO Charter, released for World Patient Safety Day 2020, calls on governments and those running health services at local levels to take five actions to better protect health workers. Sign up to the WHO Charter here
  24. News Article
    Health inspectors have uncovered multiple problems with infection control and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) in care homes in England ahead of a second spike in COVID-19, which is starting to be detected in care facilities across the country. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) found homes where PPE was not being worn and that had out-of-date infection prevention policies and were failing to take steps to protect black and minority ethnic residents and staff who have been identified as potentially more vulnerable to the virus. The checks took place last month in 59 English care homes and were triggered by concerns about safety and quality or complaints by residents, staff and relatives. The checks precede a government announcement within days of a winter infection control fund that is expected to broadly match the £600m already committed this year. The fund will pay additional staff costs stemming from using fewer highly mobile temporary workers, who have been shown to spread the virus. However, the CQC inspections found PPE being worn inconsistently by staff members, limited supplies of masks in some places, and a failure to store PPE safely away from infection risk. “We found examples of infection prevention and control policies that were out of date,” the inspectors said. “Some had been updated early on in the Covid-19 outbreak but had not been amended since and so contained out-of-date information. This posed a risk to the staff and people who live in the care home. Others had not been updated since 2019. One care home had completed a [contingency] plan, but it only covered the hot weather and did not include preparations for autumn and winter.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 16 September 2020
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