The Infection Prevention Society (IPS) has released a questions and answer document on “Using PPE for Covid-19 in Intensive Care Settings” and an accompanying video.
High standards of infection prevention and control need to be applied when personal protective equipment (PPE) is used in clinical care to ensure that patients are protected from healthcare associated infections. It is essential that these standards are not compromised when PPE is used over prolonged periods to protect staff from COVID-19. Many critical care settings are identifying increased transmission of hospital pathogens, such as highly antibiotic resistant bacteria, in the context of continuous use of PPE and poor adherence to standard infection control precautions.
The Q&As, developed by Dr Jennie Wilson (Professor, Healthcare Epidemiology, University of West London) and Dr Hugh Montgomery (Professor, Intensive Care Medicine, University College London and Whittington Health NHS Trust), focus on the importance of standard infection control precautions and describe how to apply the national guidance, while protecting both patients and staff https://bit.ly/IPS-PPE
They explain how National COVID-19 guidance on the use of PPE needs to be applied to minimise the risk of cross infection between patients, while still providing appropriate protection for staff.
The video also features Professor Jennie Wilson and Professor Hugh Montgomery discussing how to safely use personal protective equipment in the ITU to protect both patients and staff during the Covid-19 pandemic https://bit.ly/IPSPPEVideo
IPS Vice-President Professor Jennie Wilson said: “Healthcare associated infections can be devastating for patients and although PPE is important for protecting staff, inappropriate use transmits infections between patients. We hope these Q&As will help staff make sense of using PPE to protect themselves from COVID-19 while also protecting their patients from acquiring infection.”
Professor Hugh Montgomery said: “Protecting our patients from infection is of paramount importance to us so it’s great to have some practical, common sense advise on how we should PPE to safeguard both our patients and staff"
