Revised guidance issued for all healthcare settings across all four countries of UK
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- Published: Tuesday, 25 August 2020 11:35
- Written by News Editor
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The revised document, COVID-19:Guidance for the remobilisation of services within health and care settings, has been issued jointly by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Public Health Wales (PHW), Public Health Agency (PHA) Northern Ireland, Health Protection Scotland (HPS)/National Services Scotland, Public Health England (PHE) and NHS England as official guidance.
Key messages
This guidance supersedes the COVID-19 UK IPC guidance (18 June 2020).
Local and national prevalence and incidence data will be used to guide returning services as advised by Country specific/public health organisations.
Patients/Individuals treatment, care and support to be managed in 3COVID-19 pathways:
- High risk: There is no change in recommendations for IPC or for the use of PPE by staff when managing patients/individuals who have, or are likely to have, COVID-19
- Medium risk: This includes patients/individuals who have no symptoms of COVID-19 but do not have a COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2 PCR test result.
- Low risk: Patients/individuals with no symptoms and a negative COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2 PCR test who have self-isolated prior to admission for example following NICE guidance.
Sessional use of single use personal protective equipment (PPE) items has been minimised and only applies to extended use of facemasks for healthcare workers.
The use of face masks (for staff) or face coverings (England and Scotland) is recommended in addition to social distancing and hand hygiene for staff, patients/individuals and visitors in both clinical and non-clinical areas to further reduce the risk of transmission.
Physical distancing of 2 metres is considered standard practice in all health and care settings.
Patients/individuals on a low risk pathway require Standard Infection Prevention
Control Precautions for surgery or procedures.
The IPC principles in this document apply to all health and care settings including acute, diagnostics, independent sector, mental health and learning disabilities, primary care, care homes, care at home, maternity and paediatrics (this list is not exhaustive).
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