Coronavirus staff guidance University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust

The Government has today published updated guidance with regard to the wearing of masks by staff, patients and visitors in hospitals. We hope to get the full and final guidance next week.

The implementation of the guidance is complex, will take time to get right and is being imposed in very tight timescales – so please bear with us.

The draft guidance comes into play from Monday 15 June. Below is the Trust’s approach to the changes:

1. From Monday 15 June all staff should wear a face-covering/mask on entering the building and to their ward/department/work place.
2. For the first few days masks will be provided at the hand gel stations and building entrances as staff get used to these changes.
3. Once in their workplace:
   • All clinical/ward-based staff should continue their current PPE practice, appropriate to their job role
   • If staff are able to maintain social distancing in their department (please see Social Distancing Checklist in the "Downloads" section), members of staff who does not usually wear a face-covering/mask to undertake their role can remove it once reaching their place of work. If social distancing is not possible, staff should continue to wear the face-covering/mask.
4. All staff must wear a face-covering/mask at all times in all communal/public areas – for example corridors/retail units/libraries/staff rooms – and must also adhere to social distancing, wherever possible
5. All staff must wear a face-covering/mask at the end of their working day when leaving their workplace and exiting the building.
6. Supplies of masks will be available in departments from Monday and stocks will be ordered/refilled locally through usual procurement processes.

Full details and further Trust guidelines will be circulated next week.