If anyone has any guidance on any particular topics please let me know and I will put the information below.

Government Guidance

Useful documents on the government site are here.

A useful table is shown below however currently all contacts are to be treated as potential Virus carriers and face protection is to be worn as we currently still in a sustained transmission phase.

The following procedures are currently considered to be potentially infectious AGPs for COVID-19:

  • intubation, extubation and related procedures, for example, manual ventilation and open suctioning of the respiratory tract (including the upper respiratory tract)
  • tracheotomy or tracheostomy procedures (insertion or open suctioning or removal)
  • bronchoscopy and upper ENT airway procedures that involve suctioning
  • upper gastro-intestinal endoscopy where there is open suctioning of the upper respiratory tract
  • surgery and post mortem procedures involving high-speed devices
  • some dental procedures (for example, high-speed drilling)
  • non-invasive ventilation (NIV); Bi-level Positive Airway Pressure Ventilation (BiPAP) and Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Ventilation (CPAP)
  • High Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation (HFOV)
  • induction of sputum
  • high flow nasal oxygen (HFNO)

Specific Guidance

ENT

Many ENT examinations need full PPE. Summary to come soon. In the meantime please see the linked Website Below.

https://www.entuk.org/guidance-ent-during-covid-19-pandemic

Fundoscopy

There has been a suggestion that fundoscopy is risky. Common sense suggests that the proximity to the nose/mouth is risky. However, there isn’t any guidance as such that I have seen.

Source needed.