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Barnet UNISON COVID Update: PPE for care workers.

Austerity, Health and Safety, Local, UNISON Campaign

Recommended PPE for primary, outpatient, community and social care by setting, NHS and independent sector

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/878750/T2_poster_Recommended_PPE_for_primary__outpatient__community_and_social_care_by_setting.pdf

Date: 14 April 2020.

The PPE guidance takes you to a table showing the types of PPE you need depending on your workplace.

For staff working in care homes you need to read to look at the fourth column down on the left entitled:

“Community and social care, care home, mental health inpatients and other overnight care facilities e.g. learning disability, hospices, prison healthcare.”

If you look at the guidance it states:

  1. Disposable gloves : Single use

 

  1. Disposable plastic apron: Single use.

 

  1. Fluid-resistant (Type IIR) surgical mask: Sessional use.

 

  1. Eye/face protection: Risk assess sessional use.

What do they mean by eye/face protection?

  1. This may be single or reusable face/eye protection/full face visor or goggles

What do they mean by Single Use?

“4.Single use refers to disposal of PPE or decontamination of reusable items e.g. eye protection or respirator, after each patient and/or following completion of a procedure, task, or session; dispose or decontaminate reusable items after each patient contact as per Standard Infection Control Precautions (SICPs).”

What do they mean by Sessional use?

“5.A single session refers to a period of time where a health care worker is undertaking duties in a specific care setting/exposure environment e.g. on a ward round; providing ongoing care for inpatients. A session ends when the health care worker leaves the care setting/exposure environment. Sessional use should always be risk assessed and considered where there are high rates of hospital cases. PPE should be disposed of after each session or earlier if damaged, soiled, or uncomfortable.”

What do they mean by risk assess?

“8. Risk assessed use refers to utilising PPE when there is an anticipated/likely risk of contamination with splashes, droplets or blood or body fluids.”

For more details click on link to Government web site below

(Source: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/878750/T2_poster_Recommended_PPE_for_primary__outpatient__community_and_social_care_by_setting.pdf )

 

COVID-19 Update: Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Training.

Austerity, Health and Safety, Uncategorised, UNISON Campaign

It is really important that all staff have training as to how to put on PPE and to take it off.

This is a training video produced by Public Health England as to how to put on and take off your PPE. It is less than 7 minutes long. Watching it and following the guidance will keep you and the people you are caring for safe.

Please watch COVID-19: Donning and doffing of Personal Protective Equipment in Health and Social Care Settings

https://youtu.be/-GncQ_ed-9w

 

If you have not had training please speak to your manager. If you do not get training please contact Barnet UNISON 0208 359 2088 or email us at contactus@barnetunison.org.uk

What happens if I take a break e.g. to have a drink of tea or water or go to the toilet?

You need to remove and dispose of your PPE safely, including the face mask. When you start work again you need to put on your fresh PPE for when you are carrying out personal care. You must not continue to use the same mask, apron or gloves.

Helen writes to Dave Prentis UNISON General Secretary about PPE for care workers

Uncategorised

Helen Davies, Barnet UNISON Branch Chair and UNISON NEC rep for London sent the email below to Dave Prentis UNISON General Secretary on Tuesday 14 April 2020. 

“Dear Gill, Christina and Dave,
First, I hope you are well.
As you can see below many of our care workers are reporting alarming conditions about PPE where they work. The social care workforce is in an even weaker place than our colleagues in health as they have the worst terms and conditions and the intense fragmentation through privatisation has bedevilled even those who are trying to do the right thing. We are taking up the issues with the Council and the employers but they simply point to PHE guidance which they say they are following. Our national union is best placed to challenge the nonsense of the guidance.
The key question which I think UNISON needs to address urgently is PHE guidance, which is at best flimsy. It is difficult to work your way round their website and the guidance is caveated so many times over that it is wide open to interpretation. This is handy for settings which are seeking to ration PPE. My members tell me this is happening and has happened leading to outbreaks and deaths which are COVID related. In other words they were preventable.
PHE continues to perpetuate a myth, which I think only they believe in, that unless you have the symptoms of CV19 you cannot transmit it. This flies in the face of the experience of our care workers working in care homes. UNISON needs to come out and highlight the lunacy which then employers use to deny PPE. UNISON also needs to be quite strong telling care workers it’s ok to refuse to work in a setting which is unsafe until and unless they are given the proper protection – that UNISON will defend them in court.
If it’s not possible to catch CV19 from someone who is a-symptomatic why are we advocating social distancing? How have so many bus drivers died? Why are people who never go out of their setting contracting the virus and dying? Why would public messaging (nationally and repeated by our council below) suggest “anyone can transmit it” but then deny PPE to those delivering personal care because neither service user nor worker are displaying CV19 symptoms?
The RCN has come out strongly defending its members and we should do the same. I think we have to be clear on our national website and with emails and text messages that the union is advocating you refuse to work and we will defend you if you are not being provided with the right equipment which we are saying needs to be mask and eye protection, gloves and gown on EVERY occasion you provide personal care to ANYONE.
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-nurses-should-refuse-to-work-if-they-arent-given-ppe-new-guidance-says-11972124
Because our care workers are working without PPE and because they believe they have to we now have hundreds of vulnerable people succumbing to CV19 and careworkers trailing the disease home to their loved ones who may be equally vulnerable,
Thanks,
Helen”

Barnet UNISON will publish the response to our members as soon as it arrives

Housing Services Restructure

Barnet Homes, Housing, Trades Dispute

HOUSING MEMBERS

 

As you are well aware the situation in regard to Corona Virus is changing on daily basis, I have done my best to consult with UNISON members on the latest set of proposals from management.

 

In general, the opinion is, that given the crisis we are all facing, this would not be an expedient time to launch a dispute – UNISON members are more concerned with service  delivery to our vulnerable tenants.

 

However,

 

There is still an ongoing concern that there are issues with the restructure that have not been addressed and will need to be scrutinised by UNISON members before implementation.

 

So although UNISON are not declaring a dispute at the present time, due to the unprecedented circumstances we all find ourselves in, we are reserving the right to revisit the issues which are still outstanding and should UNISON members decide, declare a dispute before the full implementation of the proposals or when circumstances have returned to ‘normal’  [whenever that is]

 

 

 

BREAKING NEWS: updated guidance from Public Health on COVID-19: infection prevention and control

Uncategorised

BREAKING NEWS: updated guidance from Public Health on COVID-19: infection prevention and control

For full details click on link here

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-infection-prevention-and-control

Main changes to previous guidance

The main changes are:

  • enhanced PPE recommendations for a wide range of health and social care contexts
  • inclusion of individual and organisational risk assessment at local level to inform PPE use
  • recommendation of single sessional (extended) use of some PPE items
  • re-usable PPE can be used. Advice on suitable decontamination arrangements should be obtained from the manufacturer, supplier or local infection control
  • guidance for when case status is unknown and SARS-CoV-2 is circulating at high levels
  • recommendation on patient use of facemasks

(Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-infection-prevention-and-control/covid-19-personal-protective-equipment-ppe )

 

Below are links to various groups of staff and the PPE required.

 

1. COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) Updated 2 April 2020

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-infection-prevention-and-control/covid-19-personal-protective-equipment-ppe

 

2. Additional considerations, in addition to standard infection prevention and control precautions, where there is sustained transmission of COVID-19, taking into account individual risk assessment for this new and emerging pathogen, NHS and independent sector

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/877603/T4_Additional_considerations_of_COVID-19_poster.pdf

 

3. Recommended PPE for primary, outpatient and community care by setting, NHS and independent sector

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/877599/T2_Recommended_PPE_for_primary_outpatient_and_community_care_by_setting_poster.pdf

 

4. Recommended PPE for healthcare workers by secondary care inpatient clinical setting, NHS and independent sector

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/877728/T1_Recommended_PPE_for_healthcare_workers_by_secondary_care_clinical_context_poster.pdf

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