Gransnet forums

Coronavirus

Resuseable PPE

(5 Posts)
silversurf Sat 18-Apr-20 17:20:29

Why can’t our frontline workers not have PPE that can be washed or sanitised in some way?
It seems terribly wasteful and endangers our environment to just throw all this away after one use, especially as ten lots can be used in one shift.
Surely the scientists could come up with a way to to achieve this.

EllanVannin Sat 18-Apr-20 17:29:25

This is what I've been thinking too Silversurf. A good steam-clean or autoclaving as is done with surgical equipment.

rockgran Sat 18-Apr-20 17:36:33

Exactly my thoughts - I wondered if ironing a facemask would sanitise it. Or what about the microwave?

dizzyblonde Sat 18-Apr-20 17:38:46

I think it is because of the sheer number of items, for example, we use 3 sets of PPE per job/per ambulance when we take someone to hospital. Given that we do 8-10 jobs per shift that’s possibly 30 sets of PPE per vehicle per shift. The numbers are huge. I’m not sure about hospitals but it would depend on numbers of patients and staff available.
This is one of the issues with care home PPE, it should be changed after every contact with a resident, a home with 50 residents, 5 carers each responsible for 10 residents, say 10 interactions with each resident per day, that 500 sets if my maths is correct. ?It is no wonder we are running short but equally getting it washed and sterilised and back to the premises would be a virtually impossible task.
We do reuse visors, cleaning them between each job but they are only used for aerosol generating procedures so not every job.

V3ra Sat 18-Apr-20 18:52:05

EllanVannin when I was ordering some new nail scissors from a medical supplies company last year, I was quite surprised to read they were for "single use" only.
They're a really good quality and obviously as they're for my personal use I reuse them, but apparently a chiropodist would use a new pair for each patient.