Health Ministry issues additional guidelines for rational use of PPE kits
May 15, 2020
New Delhi [India], May 15 : Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has issued additional guidelines on the rational use of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, which use 'settings' approach for health functionaries working in the non-COVID-19 areas.
The guidelines are for the health care workers and others working in
non-COVID-19 hospitals and non-COVID treatment areas of a hospital, which has a COVID block.
These guidelines are in continuation of the guidelines issued previously on the rational use of PPE kits.
These guidelines use the 'settings' approach to guide on the type of PPE kits to be used in different settings.
The PPE kits are to be used based on the risk profile of the health care worker.
Setting-doctors chamber, Activity-clinical management, Risk-Moderate risk, Recommended - PPE-N-95 mask, goggles, Latex examination gloves, face shield, Remarks-Aerosol generating procedures anticipated; face shield when a splash of body fluid is expected.
For the in-patient Department (non-COVID hospital and non-COVID treatment areas of a hospital which has a COVID block), the MHA released a list of settings including:
Setting-ICU/Critical Care, Activity-Critical care management, Risk-moderate, Recommended PPE-N-95 mask, goggles, Nitrile examination gloves, face shield, Remarks-Aerosol generating activities performed; face shield, when a splash of body fluid is expected.
The Union Health Ministry, in a similar manner, released lists of settings for Emergency Department (Non-COVID), Other Supportive/Ancillary Services, Pre-hospital (ambulance) services.
