RES0001 Research Skills and Using

Information Report

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Contents
Section A....................................................................................................................................3

An Introduction to the Topic......................................................................................................3

Background to the topic.............................................................................................................4

Presentation of both articles.......................................................................................................5

Task 2.........................................................................................................................................7

A summary of key findings from both articles..........................................................................7

A comparison between academic papers including purpose, methodology and results............8

Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9

References................................................................................................................................10

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 The development of PPE policy on health care in the UK

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Section A

An Introduction to the Topic

Personal Protective Equipment is a very essential and significant medical equipment used by
the medical service providing people. The necessity of the equipment has given more
significance to the deadly impacts of the COvid-19 pandemic globally. Millions of people
have accepted death and the persons who work to save their lives are also in great danger
(Colbourn, 2020). Tragically, many infection and death records have occurred in the health
care workers in the global Covid-19 pandemic. Some people attributed that to inadequate
provision of PPE, particularly it is also in the UK. The UK has also experienced a big wave
of Covid pandemics from the beginning of the outbreak. The government has failed to handle
the situation properly. There was also the claim against the government to make the rules and
regulations for the health sector that could save a thousand lives including the health service
providing people. In the UK some of the organizations have raised their concerns that the
national policy and guidance issued by Public Health England is inadequate to protect the
staff of different health care organizations which are being considered as the front line
fighters (Culyer & Chalkidou, 2021). Despite the development of the health care policy
especially for Personal Protective Equipment, concern remains that they offer insufficient
protection to the frontline NHS healthcare service providing workers. The government has
taken action to review policies and provide the highest health security to the workers by
providing adequate PPE to influence them to save lives during the deadly pandemic in the
country.

In the UK, 137k people have accepted deaths of the pandemic and among them, several
people were health care workers and they also had to accept death for serving the Covid
infected people in different health care centres. But the persons had insufficient PPE to
protect themselves from being infected by the affected people. As a result, the person
surrendered to the death and a lot of organizations have claimed against the government PPE
policy developed by the Public health England. The public health policy developed by the
UK government will ultimately determine the outcomes of the battle against the Covid
Pandemic on the shores of the country (DR, 2020). In the case, with the enhancement of the

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Covid patients, the needs and necessities of the PPE have also increased to serve millions of
patients in the health care centre. Since the first report of the outbreak, different government
bodies have published recommendations for developing some friendly and effective policies
on PPE of UK health care organizations under their jurisdiction, and both to protect the health
of caring workforces and mitigate the Covid-19 propagation through the health care
providing organizations in the UK (Engy et al., 2020). The chief of different medical service
providing hospital and nurses associations have also approved the current PPE policies that
can be effective to protect the health issues of the service providers and the persona will be
more influenced to serve millions of patients in the country who have been suffering will also
suffer from the diseases.

Background to the topic

Protecting those who protect the patients is a big objective and aim of the UK government
against the current Covid pandemic. Realizing the necessity of the assurance of adequate PPE
for the health workers, the UK government has sat with the different chief figures of the
department and has recommended and developed some policies that can help to protect the
health and lives of persons (Colbourn, 2020). The government has also committed to
supplying the PPEs to the health care organizations from time to time. Public Health England
has recently declared and published some recommendations to the PPE policies and some of
the essential and significant recommendations have been mentioned here.

The organization has recommended Filter face piece class 3 (FFP3) respirators. The FFP3
respirators filter a minimum of 99% of the airborne particles which are required to be fitted
and they cover both nose and mouth (J Mantas et al., 2020). The HSE recommends that the
staff who are required to wear FFP3 respirators should be fit tested for the related model to
ensure that a sufficient seal has been achieved.

The organization also suggested wearing a fluid-resistant surgical mask as it provides barrier
protection against the respiratory and protects the nose and mouth. It should be singly used
for a single season and then it must be discarded.

Public Health England also recommended wearing eye and face protection against the
contamination to the eyes of the blood, respiratory droplets, body fluids or excretions.
According to the newly developed policy of the UK PPE, the following process can be
executed to achieve eye and face protection security,

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  Surgical mask with the integrated visor
 Full face shield or visor that can save the workers from infection

When the workers perform AGPs, they should wear shields or face masks. It is also
recommended that the face mask or shield should be discarded or replaced after a certain
period.

The committee and the organization also recommended wearing disposable gowns and
aprons. When the workers serve the patients directly, they have a lot of possibility of being
infected and then the gowns and apron can be affected to wear to be protected from the virus.

The UK government and the devolved administrations are committed to making such a PPE
policy that also involves the WHO instruction n to supply and avails the adequate number of
PPEs to the different health providing organizations (Judkins, 2020). The policy
development administration also suggests informing the local police and discarding the PPEs
if there is any defect in their designs and sets of them. So, the staff should play a vital role to
make the process successful and should execute the new policy to supply the PPEs from the
UK government during the pandemic period. The NHS and the chiefs of the different medical
associations are taking ace of the policies and ensuring the adequate supply of the PPES to
use for the medical staff that can help to save their lives and ensure the highest treatment to
the Covid affected people.

Presentation of both articles

Article 1

The first selected article is ‘Covid-19: Coroners needn’t investigate PPE policy failures in
deaths of NHS staff, new guidance says. BMJ, [online] 369. Available at:
https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1806 [Accessed 5 Jun. 2020].’ The article was
written by Clare Dyer. The detailed presentation of the article has been given in the below
part with the help of the CAARP model.

CAARP Evaluation

Currency: The Article has been developed based on the information the Coroners have been
issued new guidance on Covid-19 deaths steering them away from the investigating policies
and the failure in the provision of the Public Protective Equipment in the workplace of the

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UK (Dyer, 2020). So the information of the article is current as the world is still passing the
feared part of the Covid pandemic.

Authority: The author of the article is Clare Dyer who is a postdoctoral Research Fellow in
the Neglected Tropical Diseases. The article was published on 04 May 2020.

Accuracy: The information and data that have been used in the article are based on reliable
sources and from the recognized sites that observed the situation and the demand of changing
the current policies and bringing new guidance of the PPEs of the UK. So the information is
completely accurate.

Relevance: The title of the report is related to the changing policies of PPEs in the UK and
the article there is the discussion about the guidance by Coroners and there is the argument
not for investigating the previous policies and the reason of receiving death of the health care
staffs even if there is the relation of PPEs (Dyer, 2020). So the article is relevant to the title of
the article.

Purpose: The purpose of the article is to find out the reasons why the Coroners issued
guidance needn't investigate the PPE policy failures death of the NHS staffs and the
statement in favour and against of the decisions. The article was also written to show the
impacts of the fault PPE guidance.

CAARP Evaluation:

The second selected article is ‘Covid-19: Frontline doctors continue PPE fight. BMJ,
p.m2188’. The author of the article is Alison Shepherd. The presentation of the article is
given below.

Currency: The information of the article is about the PPEs policy and how the staff of the
country has fought against the actions taken by the Government (Puntis, 2020). So the
information that has been given here is based on the current policies of the UK and its
government that has been mentioned here and it is the current information.

Authority: The author of the article is Alison Shepherd, a Family Medicine Nurse
Practitioner in Forrest City. The publication date of the article is on 02 June 2020.

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Accuracy: The information and arguments of the medical staff of the UK for a safety policy
and demand of the strong action to provide adequate PPEs to safe and protect the staff of
NHS. So the information is accurate here.

Relevance: The discussion of the article is also relenting with the title of the article and the
topic of the report (Puntis, 2020). The article has focused on the necessity of bringing
changes in new guidance of the PPEs policy in the UK to secure the lives of the medical staff.

Purpose: The Purpose of the article was to reveal the urgency of changing Current PPE
policies in the UK and prioritizes the developed guidance that can assure the medical staffs
that they are going to serve the patients under full protection by wearing quality and standard
PPEs.

Task 2

A summary of key findings from both articles

From the first article,

The coroners in the UK have issued guidance on Covid-19 in where there is the discussion of
leading no investigation of PPE policy failure and the death of the medical staff of the NHS
in the UK. The guidance made by the Coroners and the chief coroner of the UK has
mentioned the death of the medical staff during the Covid-19 pandemic and the person also
mentioned that number is more than 100 who sacrificed their lives after serving the Covid
patients and being infected(Dyer, 2020).. But the guidance denied investigating the failed
policy of the PPEs that was one of the strong reasons behind the death of the staff. The
guidance also confessed that it may have the human crated reason to lead them to death as
there was a lot of possibilities to be infected when they served the patients with inadequate
safety and protection. But the organization of the medical staff and individual staff wanted to
lead a fair investigation to trace the reason wheatear any was lacking the government to
handle the situation. There was also dissatisfaction that the government could not supply an
adequate number of PPEs and it was the biggest reason to accept death and infection.

From the second article,

In the second selected article, there was also discussion and evidence that many health
providing staffs have sacrificed their valuable life as the front line medical staff who were the
key warriors to provide treatment from the beginning of the Covid outbreak. The persons

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were the most vulnerable and they know they were in great danger to be infected and they
can infect their family members at home (Puntis, 2020). Despite the persons were committed
to serving the patients without having adequate security and safety in the organizations. As a
result, many warriors have received premature death. The bigger position of the medical staff
and their organisations under the NHS have friendly believed that the government of the UK
was completely unaware to provide and supply the adequate number of PPEs that could
protect the staffs and they could serve the patients without being infected and receiving the
deaths. The staff have shown symbolic protest outside the Number 10, Downing State. They
wanted to make the government aware and careful to bring change in the PPEs guidelines and
protect the staffs who are considered as the frontline fighters against the Covid Pandemic in
the UK. The factor also could provide a strong faith to the staffs to serve eth patients
properly.

A comparison between academic papers including purpose, methodology and results

Between the two academic papers, there were some comparisons and differences based on
their result, methodology and results. The comparisons of the tows are given in below,

Purpose: The purpose of the first academic paper was to reveal the issues of how the
Coroners issued guidance ignored the investigation against the government where they
showed sloppy maturity to make effective PPEs guidelines that brought some unexpected
death of the medical staff of the UK (Dyer, 2020). Rinesh Parmar, chair of the Doctors
Association UK has argued that the death of the health care workers in Corona Virus will not
require to investigate due to denying the grieving families the answers of the death to which
they are entitled.

On the other hand, the second academic paper was written to publish the demand and
expectations from the medical service staff to get developed and changed guidance and
policies in the issue of PPEs that can save their lives and protect them from being infected
during serving the patients in the hospital and help care centres (Puntis, 2020). The staff
gathered at the number 10 to make concentrate the government.

Methodology: The author of the first academic paper used the qualitative research method to
explain the guidelines of the coroners suggesting not to investigate the deaths due to
insufficient PPEs and other equipment (Dyer, 2020).. Again the author also used secondary

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data sources to sue the information. It contains the reaction from different responsible persons
who are related to the sector and the guidance.

In the second academic paper, the author has also used both the quantitative and qualitative
research methods to explain the numerical statistics of the methods of the medical service
staff and how they reacted with the decision and policies of the government figures to supply
an adequate number of PPEs that could save the lives of many staffs (Puntis, 2020). The
author of the paper also used both primary and secondary data to rely on the sources of the
information that has been used in the paper.

Result: The first academic paper was written and developed to show the factors of the
guidelines of coroners of England and Wales where there was the agreement of not leading
the investigation against the faults policies of PPEs that led to several deaths of the medical
sector service providing staffs under the NHS (Dyer, 2020). The author has tried to find the
statement from the different persona and justified the logic why the investigation of the cases
did not advances.

Again, in the second academic paper, the author has revealed and published some practical
experiences and a real picture of how the staff of the medical sectors reacted to the
government in the issue of the guidelines and policies of the PPEs and how the inadequate
number of PPEs forced the staffs to receive death after being infected in the workplace
(Puntis, 2020). The staff claimed against the government policies and they wanted to get an
adequate supply of the equipment.

Conclusion
The Daily Telegraph has reported on 2 April 2020 that the families of NHS staff who have
died due to the Covid-19 are to be offered compensation. And whether or not set are
considered as the frontline-staff, a scheme has been finalised under the UK government
(Judkins, 2020). So the UK government has acknowledged there was a huge liability of the
government for failing to protect the lives and health conditions of those frontline service
holders of the UK. But different organisations and staff in the UK argued to change the
current PP policy in the UK and wanted to bring a lot of changes based on the
recommendation of the WHO to change the situation and protect the lives of the medical staff
who are the key figure to treat the Covid affected people in the country (J Mantas et al.,
2020). The above-mentioned discussion and finds from review, it can be said that the

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necessity of PPE has increased a lot to ensure the health condition and wellness of the
medical service providing staffs under the NHS of the UK and the UK government was also
forced to bring changes to provide more security of the staffs.

The UK has already experienced 137k people die from the disease and among them, more
than 800 health service providing people have also accepted death and the main reason for
the deaths has been identified as the scarcity and want of PPEs (Krishna, 2013). The chiefs of
different medical service organizations have argued that it would have been possible to save
lives if they have gotten an adequate number of PPEs including, face masks, eye protection,
gowns and aprons. At the beginning part of the pandemic, the UK government has shown
flexibility and carelessness to protect the health care providing staffs who could be the
worriers during the diseases. But due to the lack of supply of PPEs in different hospitals and
health care organizations, a lot of medical staff have been infected from the diseases many
persons have received death. The factors raised a lot of voices to provide more concern in the
factors and change the existing policies that are not adequate to secure the full safety of the
health priding staffs in the country (Puntis, 2020). After taking effective decisions, the
government could be able to handle the situation and the committees and administration who
are in charge of supplying the PPEs are concerned to avail the number of quality products
with standard materials that can protect the highest safety. The staff are alarmed to maintain
hygiene that use them properly to ensure the protection during the devastating period of the
pandemic. The supervisory committee also has committed to checking and supervising the
quality and standard of the equipment and they are also very alert to assure the developed and
changed guidance and policies of the PPEs in the UK.

References
Colbourn, T. (2020). Unlocking UK COVID-19 policy. The Lancet Public Health.

Culyer, A.J. and Chalkidou, K. (2021). Organising Research and Development for evidence-
informed health care: some universal characteristics and a case study from the UK. Health
Economics, Policy and Law, pp.1–16.

DR, M. (2020). The Use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during the Covid 19
Pandemic: Developed and Developing Country Review. Journal of Quality in Health Care &
Economics, 3(6).

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Dyer, C. (2020). Covid-19: Coroners needn’t investigate PPE policy failures in deaths of
NHS staff, new guidance says. BMJ, [online] 369. Available at:
https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1806 [Accessed 5 Jun. 2020].

Engy Ziedan, Kosali Ilayperuma Simon, Wing, C. and Bureau, N. (2020). Effects of state
COVID-19 closure policy on non-COVID-19 health care utilization. Cambridge, Ma:
National Bureau Of Economic Research, July.

J Mantas, Hasman, A., Mowafa Househ, Parisis Gallos and Zoulias, E.I. (2020). The
importance of health informatics in public health during a pandemic. Amsterdam: Ios Press
B.V.

Judkins, A. (2020). Covid chronicles. Wellington: Writes Hill Press.

Krishna Regmi, S.P. (2013). Health Care Commissioning: The UK Health Policy Reforms.
Primary Health Care: Open Access, 03(02).

Puntis, J. (2020). Covid-19: Questions remain over UK government’s PPE guidance. BMJ,
p.m1964.

Shepherd, A. (2020). Covid-19: Frontline doctors continue PPE fight. BMJ, p.m2188.

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