Addenbrooke’s Hospital changed its approach after discovering that staff working on its Covid-19 wards were 47 times more likely to catch the virus at work than their counterparts on other wards.To get more news about quality nonmedical mask factory, you can visit tnkme.com official website.

At the time, national guidance was for staff working with Covid-19 patients to use a standard surgical face mask, also known as a fluid resistant surgical mask type IIR (FRSM), except when aerosol-generating procedures (AGPs) were being carried out.

For times when AGPs were being performed, the guidance recommended the use of a higher-grade filtering face piece 3 (FFP3) respirator, which is specially fitted for each individual.

Concerned about the rate of hospital-acquired infections among staff on Covid-19 wards, known as “red wards”, Addenbrooke’s Hospital implemented a different approach in December 2020 – during the national second wave of coronavirus cases.

It was also around this time when the Royal College of Nursing and other unions were escalating concerns about personal protective equipment (PPE) guidance in light of the outbreak of the more transmissable B.1.1.7 variant, later named the Alpha variant by the World Health Organization.

Addenbrooke’s Hospitall made it policy for all staff working with Covid-19 patients to wear FFP3 masks, regardless of whether AGPs were taking place.

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, monitored the effect of the policy change as part of a study with the University of Cambridge.The results, which have been published in a pre-print online article and are yet to be peer-reviewed, showed a “dramatic fall” in hospital-acquired infections among workers on Covid-19 wards.

Prior to the change, cases of such infections per ward day were higher on red wards on seven out of eight weeks analysed, compared with non-Covid-19 wards, known as “green wards”.However, following the switch, the incidence of infection on red and green wards equalled out to practically the same level, said the researchers.

They said it had been clear before the change that the majority of Covid-19 infections among health workers on green wards had been contracted in the community.Whereas on red wards, it was a combination of community-acquired infections and “direct, ward-based infection from patients with Covid-19”.

But the researchers said this disparity was “effectively mitigated by the use of FFP3 respirators” – which were found to provide 100% protection from Covid-19 in most cases.They concluded that that the use of FRSMs as respiratory protective equipment was “insufficient to protect [healthcare workers] against infection from patients with Covid-19”.

“Conversely, excess infections amongst [healthcare workers] caring for patients with Covid-19 may be prevented by the use of FFP3 respirators, in combination with other PPE and infection control measures,” they said.At the start of this month, national guidance was amended to allow for use of FFP3 respirators beyond areas where AGPs are being performed, if it is deemed appropriate following a local risk assessment.