Last updated on June 18th, 2021 at 01:15 pm
Today’s update is below:
- Important PPE guidance reminder
- Repeat testing of patients who have a negative admission screen
- Criteria for assessing an exposure to COVID within the Trust
Important PPE and social distancing guidance reminder
Staff are reminded, that they MUST adhere to the current PPE guidance AT ALL TIMES, even if there are no COVID positive patients in their area.
Please also remember it is essential that ALL staff wear surgical masks when moving around our buildings and continue to observe social distancing when not providing direct clinical care.
All patients must wear surgical masks when moving around the ward (away from bedside) and around our buildings.
For the latest PPE guidance for your area, visit the COVID website: https://covid.sthk.nhs.uk/what-to-wear-and-when/ (password: STHKcovid19)
While the number of COVID patient in hospital are reducing at the moment, the risk of transmission of COVID within the Trust still remains very high. Adhering to appropriate PPE and social distancing guidance will help keep our staff and patients safe.
Repeat testing of patients who have a negative admission screen
Any inpatients who test negative on their admission screen should be retested on day 3 of admission (day of admission is taken as day 1). Then, unless the patient is found to be positive, repeat screening should be undertaken on day 5 of admission and continued every 5 days thereafter until discharge. Use the appropriate drop down selection on Medway (see below). Patients who are awaiting this repeat test result but who do not have clinical features of COVID-19 do NOT need isolation in side rooms (unless they also have another reason to require this e.g. another infectious disease requiring isolation precautions or infection alert such as MRSA/VRE/CPE).
This is important in identifying cases in a timely manner and reducing the risk of COVID transmission within the Trust.
Criteria for assessing an exposure to COVID within the Trust
As per recent changes in the national guidance, the criteria for determining whether someone has had a significant exposure to COVID within the Trust have been updated as below.
An exposure will be deemed significant if the patient and/or staff had contact with the positive person that fulfils any of the following criteria:
- face-to-face contact including being coughed on or having a face-to-face conversation within one metre
- being within one metre for one minute or longer without face-to-face contact
- being within 2 metres of someone for more than 15 minutes (either as a one-off contact, or total time of contact over 24 hours)
AND
- Not wearing correct PPE as per Trust policy
Significant exposure is based on above contact happening within the following timeframes:
- If the contact was with a symptomatic person who has tested positive for COVID-19, up to 48 hours before their symptoms began, or up to 10 days after symptoms began and until they have been well without a fever for 48h hours.
- If the contact was with an asymptomatic person who has tested positive for COVID-19, up to 48 hours before the date of the positive test, or up to 10 days after the positive swab test.
Please see https://covid.sthk.nhs.uk/test-and-trace/ for further details.