Guidance for Primary Care
New recommendations for primary and community health care providers in England were published on 22nd January 2021 by Public Health England.
To precis their guidance, when carrying out face-to-face appointments, practices should:
• remotely triage all attending patients prior to the visit; and
• ensure local arrangements for minimising contact with others and social distancing
are followed.
If the environment cannot be made Covid-19 secure staff should:
• wear a surgical mask and allow adequate time following appointments to clean and
ventilate clinic room; and
• patients should wear a face mask if they are able to do so.
More information is available in the recently revised national standard operating procedures for general pratice in the context of Covid-19.
- Quick Reference Guide to PPE: Infection Prevention and Control Quick Reference Guide, including recommended PPE for healthcare professionals in different settings (UPDATED October 2020).
- Illustrated Guide for Staff: An illustrated guide for staff to the use of PPE in community and social care settings (for staff training)
- Donning and Doffing Guide: Guidance on correct donning and removal of PPE . PPE is only effective if removed correctly. (Video guide)
- Understanding the impact of masks of communication: A useful poster on the impact of masks on communication including information on how to support patients with hearing loss
- Latest guidance on infection prevention and control for COVID-19 available here. Sustained community transmission is continuing to occur across the UK
- Infection prevention and control (IPC) guidance, summarised (on 24 August) by the NEL IPC team for your review
- IPC guidance and toolkit. NHS London have released a new toolkit to support the IPC guidance for remobilisation of the services within health and care settings plus a reference guide.
PPE Portal
The PPE Portal has changed from being an ‘emergency top-up’ system to meeting COVID-19 PPE requirements. Eligible primary care providers in England (including community pharmacists, optometrists, dentists, orthodontists and GPs) should now order PPE through the portal, free of charge, to meet the increased need that has arisen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Exemptions from face coverings
- A reminder that people exempt from wearing face coverings do not need to get a note from their GP and can self-certificate. More information on the list of exemptions. A medical exemption note is not needed.
CPR and resuscitation in non-acute hospital settings
- PHE statement on CPR as an Aerosol Generating Procedure (Updated 21st Jan 2021)
Please note: UK IPC guidance will not be adding chest compressions to the list of AGPs. Healthcare organisations may choose to advise their clinical staff to wear FFP3 respirators, gowns, eye protection and gloves when performing chest compressions (in line with Reus Council statement below for patients at high or medium risk of Covid) but we strongly advise that there is no potential delay in delivering this life saving intervention. - Joint NHS London & Resuscitation Council UK statement on PPE requirements for chest compressions/ defibrillation | Resuscitation Council UK (Resus Council)