With COVID-19 lockdown measures beginning to ease, Gemma Rower discusses how hospitals can maintain a safe operating theatre during the global pandemic – protecting the perioperative team and patients.
Clinicians and healthcare workers are arguably among the most at-risk of COVID-19 infection. Ensuring their safety is essential, not just because of the work they do, but because if they do contract COVID-19, they represent a ‘triple threat’ to pandemic control, becoming patients themselves in a healthcare system already under intense pressure.
The use of and access to PPE has been a topic of intense discussion during the pandemic. It has been widely accepted that clinicians and other hospital staff must be able to access PPE during the course of their work, and it is a crucial first barrier of protection. Yet few studies exist on how else clinicians can be protected in the course of their duties.
One study that does exist, published by the (US) Nature Public Health Committee1 makes the case that physical distancing within an operating theatre is “challenging but necessary” if hospitals are to maintain safety. The study also raises the importance of cultural and behavioural shifts which should be adopted for this to be made possible.
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