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COVID-19 Primary Care bulletin
2 April 2020
COVID-19: today's round-up for primary care
Dear primary care colleagues,
Today much anticipated revised guidance on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been issued by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Public Health Wales (PHW), Public Health Agency (PHA) Northern Ireland, Health Protection Scotland (HPS), Public Health England and NHS England.
This guidance has been updated to reflect pandemic evolution and the changing level of risk of healthcare exposure to COVID-19
For primary care, ambulatory care and other non-emergency outpatient settings (including hospital outpatient clinics) plastic aprons, FRSMs, eye protection and gloves should be used for any direct care of possible and confirmed cases. Such PPE may be indicated for work in such settings regardless of case status, subject to local risk assessment (section 7).
For health and social care workers working in reception and communal areas but not involved in direct patient care, every effort should be made to maintain social distancing of 2 metres. Where this is not practical use of FRSM is recommended.
The principles described in this guidance apply to all health and social settings. PPE guidance is provided for primary and community care in Table 2
Refer to further guidance for primary care.
Guidance and standard operating procedures for COVID-19 are also provided by NHS England.
For pharmacy - If social distancing of 2 metres is maintained there is no indication for PPE in a pharmacy setting. If social distancing is not maintained though direct care is not provided, sessional use of FRSM is recommended. For pharmacists working in other contexts (such as inpatient areas) recommendations described for Community care home, mental health and other overnight resident facilities in the guidance.
Review the full guidance on the Public Health England website including guidance on putting on and taking off PPE equipment.
Tonight at 8pm the public will again be asked to clap for the NHS so do take a moment to receive this much deserved thanks and praise.
Nikki and Ed
Dr Nikki Kanani
GP and Medical Director for Primary Care
NHS England and NHS Improvement
Ed Waller
Director for Primary Care Strategy and NHS Contracts
NHS England and NHS Improvement
General practice
Over the last week we have noticed an increase in delayed presentations of children with life threatening illness. The threshold for face to face consultation, with appropriate infection control measures, in general practice and the referral to secondary care should not change during the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 tends to be a mild self-limiting respiratory illness in children. Therefore prolonged illness and/or other symptoms should not be attributed to COVID-19 and should be evaluated in the normal way.
Community health services
Updated guidance on COVID-19 prioritisation within community health services
Community health services are vital to the COVID-19 response. This guidance details which community health services should stop, partially stop or continue so that providers can release capacity to support the COVID-19 response, and has recently been updated in line with developing clinical advice. To easily identify the most significant changes, it is accompanied by a change log which records additions, removals and changes to categorisation of services. The guidance will be discussed as part of a webinar for colleagues involved in community health services on Friday 3 April. For details on this webinar please email: england.ageingwell@nhs.net
Dentistry
Join our Chief Dental Officer and Director of Primary Care and System Transformation on Friday 3 April for a dental services webinar from 5pm. Type in the link below, or access the click directly via our primary care webinar webpage.
Additional information
Nikki and Ed's Link of the Day
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