COVID-19
"Fears have been expressed in medical circles that protective equipment could provide
healthcare staff with a false sense of security."
two metres from the infected person. Gloves and aprons should be worn for one shiſt only, while masks should be discarded if they become damaged, soiled, damp, or uncomfortable to use.
However, the Public Health England (PHE) document adds that PPE is only effective when combined with hand hygiene. Moreover, fears have been expressed in medical circles that protective equipment could provide healthcare staff with a false sense of security.
NHS England’s senior infection prevention and control advisor Gaynor Evans made this point to GPs in a live webinar in May. She said: “The really important issue is around hand hygiene and this over-reliance on PPE as the protector. While we do need PPE, it does not work on its own and you’ve still got to have the very basic infection prevention and control practices in place.”
According to PHE, hand hygiene in a care home needs to be performed immediately before every episode of care and aſter any activity that potentially results in the hands becoming contaminated. This includes before and aſter eating or drinking, aſter handling waste and aſter removing one’s personal protective equipment.
Plentiful hand hygiene facilities therefore need to be available in care homes to allow staff to wash, dry and sanitise their hands at regular intervals, and all systems should allow for speed, efficiency and optimum hygiene.
Soap should be housed in closed cartridges to avoid any risk of contamination before use, and hand towel dispensers should give out only one towel at a time to ensure that each user only touches their own towel.
Soaps and towels should be kind to the hands to prevent the chapping and soreness oſten associated with frequent hand- washing. Tork Extra Mild Foam Soap is particularly gentle on the
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hands and comes in closed cartridges for maximum hygiene. The cartridge takes a few seconds to replace and each refill contains approximately two and a half times as many doses of soap as a liquid soap container of the same size. This means run-outs are infrequent and a soap supply is always available when a member of staff needs it.
Tork Xpress Hand Towels are also particularly appropriate for care homes because the dispenser gives out towels one at a time to prevent the risk of cross-contamination. The Extra Soſt version of the towels is kind to the hands and will prevent any abrasion or chapping on the part of the user.
Hand sanitisers such as the Tork Alcohol Hand Sanitiser should be placed in strategic positions around the home to supplement hand washing facilities. And, a product such as Tork Hand and Body Lotion will help replenish the skin’s natural moisture and prevent the hands from becoming sore.
Besides using PPE and practising good hand hygiene, staff should also seek to avoid touching their faces with their hands as much as possible. This practice could easily result in the transference of the coronavirus from frequently-touched surfaces to their own noses and mouths between hand washes. For this reason, changing one’s face mask or eye protection between residents is not advised since this could involve touching the face unnecessarily. Instead, a mask may be worn for an entire shiſt unless it becomes soiled or contaminated, according to PHE.
Caring for elderly people during a pandemic that preys specifically upon the frail is little short of heroic. But with the right equipment, the right attitude and the right hand-hygiene protocols, care home staff will be well set up for the task of keeping the residents – and themselves – safe from harm.
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