New updated national guidance on PPE has just been published and I attach the recommendations for primary care. Here is the link to the government statement:
Whilst it’s an improvement on what we have had hitherto, particularly in respect of stating that PPE should be used for all patient contacts in primary care and this now includes eye protection, and that all patients should also wear masks there remain some areas of concern, notably in respect of advice that aprons are adequate, as opposed to WHO guidance which clearly recommends full gowns:
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/331498/WHO-2019-nCoV-IPCPPE_use-2020.2-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y A number of practices have made the point that the sinks in their rooms do not allow for forearm washing, which then would inevitably make the use of full arm gowns mandatory. Clearly this may become less of a problem once all the “purple” and “amber” sites are up and running but as things stand there are still huge issues, to say nothing of course about the ongoing lack of availability of PPE for practices.