Question reference: S5W-28615
- Asked by: Joan McAlpine, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 21 April 2020
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Current status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 June 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has reportedly not instructed care workers who come within two metres of a vulnerable person to wear a protective mask in every instance, given that the rest of the population are obliged to stay two metres apart from each other in light of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Answer
Our national expert body, Health Protection Scotland, jointly with the Department of Health and Social Care, Public Health Wales, Public Health Agency Northern Ireland, Public Health England and NHS England published updated PPE guidance in relation to COVID-19 on Thursday 2 April. The revised guidance is available at https://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/a-to-z-of-topics/covid-19/
The guidance outlines what type of PPE frontline health and social care workers should be wearing in different settings and scenarios. The guidance itself recommends the safest level of PPE to protect health and social care workers and it specifies the type of PPE that should be worn in the various healthcare and social care settings where patients or residents could be cared for. Importantly, the updates reflect the fact that COVID-19 is now widespread in the community, meaning clinicians and care workers are more likely to see people with the virus, some of who will not have symptoms yet.
The guidance makes very clear (in table 2) that care workers who are providing direct care to, or visit, any individuals in the extremely vulnerable group or where a member of the household is within the extremely vulnerable group undergoing shielding should wear a face mask.
Given the recognised sustained transmission of COVID-19, table 4 of the guidance also includes detailed advice around risk assessing use of PPE, including aprons, gowns, Fluid-Resistant Surgical Masks and eye protection, in a range of different clinical and care scenarios, including community settings where the person being cared for is not currently a possible nor confirmed cases of COVID-19. The guidance also asks that organisations themselves undertake risk assessments to ensure that they provide the correct PPE for the safety of their staff.
Furthermore, I also published a joint statement on 9 April with COSLA and the Trades Unions which emphasised that social care workers can wear a Fluid-Resistant face mask along with other appropriate PPE where the person they are visiting or otherwise attending to is neither confirmed nor suspected of having COVID-19, if they consider doing so necessary to their own and the individual's safety.