2 April 2020
New Guidance Provides Much-Needed Clarity for GPs on PPE, Says College
Responding to new guidance on personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline clinicians, Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: "It is crucial that healthcare professionals on the frontline of tackling the COVID-19 pandemic are confident that they are able to work as safely as possible.
"This new guidance provides much of the clarity the College has called for and it is appreciated that Public Health England and NHS England have been receptive to our concerns. It should provide GPs and their teams with much-needed reassurance around how and when to use protective equipment when they are seeing patients face to face in the best interests of their patients, their teams and themselves.
"We understand that initial stocks of PPE have been getting to GP practices, we now need to ensure that this supply is sustained throughout the pandemic, that practices start receiving new equipment recommended in the guidance such as eye protection soon, and that effective mechanisms are in place for practices to request emergency supplies, should they need them."
Further Information
RCGP Press office: 020 3188 7494/7633/7574/7575
Out of hours: 0203 188 7659
press@rcgp.org.uk
Notes
The Royal College of General Practitioners is a network of more than 53,000 family doctors working to improve care for patients. We work to encourage and maintain the highest standards of general medical practice and act as the voice of GPs on education, training, research and clinical standards.