Health staff: The Chief Nursing Officer (Fiona McQueen) has issued guidance to boards regarding PPE in order to clarify issues raised round single use, sessional use and reusing PPE.
Single-use PPE
Scottish Government is clear that single-use PPE must not be reused and should be disposed of after use into the correct waste stream.
Sessional Use of PPE
The UK PPE guidance introduced the concept of sessional PPE: sessional use is described as a period of time where a health or care worker is undertaking duties in a specific care setting. The session ends when the health or care worker leaves that
care setting e.g. a person’s home, private room or ward.
Re-usable PPE
At present, there are some items of PPE such as goggles or visors which may be re-usable.
Where this is the case, these items must be decontaminated in line with HPS guidance. Full details and links are in the letter.