COVID-19 Updated guidance for healthcare settings

The last remaining COVID restrictions in England have ended (24th Feb), in the Republic of Ireland the mandatory requirement to wear a mask was removed (28th Feb) and Scotland’s restrictions are due to end on 21st March.

The guidance from NHS England, the UK Health Security Agency, the Northern Ireland Public Health Agency, and Public Health Wales continues to recommend Type II or Type IIR face coverings in healthcare settings.

The advice also recommends that: “physical distancing of one metre should still remain, increasing whenever feasible to two metres, across all health and care settings”. The guidance continues to recommend that staff and organisations continue to undertake risk assessments using ‘hierarchy of controls’ measures. This should include an evaluation of the ventilation in the area, operational capacity, physical distancing and prevalence of Covid-19.

This information is applicable to all health professionals.  The Government link is: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-management-of-exposed-healthcare-workers-and-patients-in-hospital-settings/covid-19-management-of-exposed-healthcare-workers-and-patients-in-hospital-settings

There is a good ‘Nursing Times’ article, that shares concern from a health professional prospective of what is likely to happen post 1st April. https://www.nursingtimes.net/news/coronavirus/living-with-covid-19-what-new-plan-means-for-nurses-22-02-2022/

The guidance has also made a range of recommendations for occupational health practitioners working within the NHS, health or care settings. This has included re-emphasising that “prompt recognition” of cases of respiratory infection among health and care staff remains essential to limiting transmission. “All staff should be vigilant for any signs of respiratory infection and should not come to work if they have respiratory symptoms.

Full Infection Control Precautions can be found here Infection prevention and control for seasonal respiratory infections in health and care settings (including SARS-CoV-2) for winter 2021 to 2022 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

There are additional resources for your clinic including best practice hand wash, best practice hand rub and sample screening tools available via this link COVID-19: infection prevention and control (IPC) – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

In the Republic of Ireland with effect from 28th February, the mandatory requirement to wear masks was removed, whilst public health advice that masks should continue to be worn on public transport and in healthcare settings remains. Please see https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/aac74c-guidance-on-safe-use-of-face-coverings/

England

Coronavirus – updated information ahead of July 19th 2021

The Governments coronavirus advice is due to change. England will move to step 4 of it’s roadmap in the easing of all restrictions. For full details of this please visit Coronavirus: how to stay safe and help prevent the spread from 19 July – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The current advice for healthcare settings is that face coverings and social distancing measures should/will remain in place.

This advice means that patients, including the most vulnerable patients, can continue to safely seek medical treatment.

Cases of COVID-19 are high and are expected to rise. Therefore, the continued use of face coverings for both staff and patients as well as the continued use of PPE for practitioners is encouraged.

Wales

Coronavirus restriction changes 17th July

Wales will move to alert 1 on 17th July. The changes from alert 2 can be found here Current restrictions | Sub-topic | GOV.WALES and full details on the restrictions here Current restrictions: summary | GOV.WALES

Scotland

On the 19th July ALL of Scotland will move to level 0 of the Scottish Governments strategy plan. Full details of level 0 can be found here Coronavirus (COVID-19) protection levels: what you can do – gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Northern Ireland

Restrictions remain in place, please see here Coronavirus (COVID-19) regulations and guidance: what they mean for you | nidirect

Republic of Ireland 

ROI is currently in the recovery phase of their response to the pandemic.

For a full list of restrictions updated 14th July  visit gov.ie – Public health measures in place right now (www.gov.ie)

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