Innovations

Clinical teams across trusts are making a series of changes to manage the increase in the number of COVID-19 patients, and to reconfigure existing practices and equipment. Here we have highlighted a number of innovations from across the provider sector:

• Clinical staff, engineers and physicists at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust have begun to convert sleep apnoea machines into ventilators to treat COVID-19 patients. There are thousands of similar devices across the NHS, and the modifications may help rapidly increase the availability of respiratory support.
• Bristol Royal Infirmary have implemented a new 'sticker initiative' to help identify which clinical and non-clinical staff are wearing personal protection equipment (PPE). Different staff groups are allocated separate colours to help others readily identify them without a need to refer to a guide. Other trusts are now beginning to implement the Who are you? system.
• A clinical team has produced a sticker template for staff to use while wearing PPE. The sticky labels are placed on top of gowns when staff are in full PPE and are later disposed of following the doffing and disposal of protective equipment.
• University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust has become the first trust to introduce respiratory hoods for staff treating COVID-19 patients. The equipment, known as PeRSo, consists of a fabric hood which covers a person’s head and a plastic visor to protect their face. Clear air is delivered through a High Efficiency Particulate Air filter with a belt-mounted fan pack. The equipment was designed in collaboration between the University of Southampton and clinicians in the US, and was manufactured at scale in less than a month.
• The government has scaled up a new national clinical trial initiative, so that new treatments might be fast-tracked to accelerate the development of new drugs for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. The collaborative initiative – called ACCORD (Accelerating COVID-19 Research & Development platform) – will be funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and the UK Research and Innovation.
• Northampton General Hospital have been using robotic process automation (RPA) technology to help with their planning of COVID-19 care, and have created a bot to monitor oxygen tank levels. The bot works by automating the process, extracting the data and calculating flow rates to monitor the oxygen levels 24 hours a day without human intervention. The team are offering this technology to any other trust who needs it.

We are also compiling a set of resources and case studies on staff testing here.