How often are hospital nurses tested?

[notevenat20]

My father in law just got covid in hospital and died. It seems likely he caught it from a nurse as no visitors are allowed and he hardly saw a doctor. I don't blame anyone but does anyone know how often hospital nurses are tested?

@PrivateHall, our specialty is Supergreen, meaning all patients coming in have to self isolate for 3 days and have negative swab. They are also tracked symptom-wise for 2 weeks after coming in. Staff tested as above.
We used to only wear full FFP3 masks, gowns etc., when doing AGPs, but now have to wear all of it for everything, no exceptions.
If it’s keeping my colleagues, my patients, and myself safe, it’s good as far as I’m concerned, although of course, a giant pain in the arse!
Also vaccinated 10 days ago.

Bucks Healthcare Trust and Heatherwood and Frimley both have staff test twice a week with lateral flow.

I’ve known a few asymptotic staff that have had it picked up on the lateral flow and confirmed with a PCR.

@PrivateHall

To be fair, the op has been very clear that they are not blaming individual clinicians, they are just hoping to confirm that the Trust were doing all they could to detect staff cases at the earliest opportunity to protect patients. I don't think this is unreasonable and is a normal part of the grieving process to be honest (to look for blame). It might be helpful for the op to (hopefully) learn that all possible precautions were taken to protect her fil.

To be fair she assumed the nurses.

I am sorry for your loss OP but I don't think you are going to find any solace or resolution in this thread . I don't think it's helpful for anybody. Nurses and all medical staff are doing the best they can in a difficult situation .

OP - sorry for your loss. I’d suggest you contact the hospital PALS team. I work on a COVID ward and have suggested this to families of patients I’ve treated. You are entitled to an explanation, and if there was a ward outbreak I would hope there has been an investigation to try to identify the source and learn from any issues identified.

OP I'm so sorry for your loss But this is a really regular occurrence where I work and we all get tested regularly but loads are asymptomatic and loads of tests are false negative. Unfortunately naming and shaming trusts isn't going to make you feel better. I picked up covid operating all night on a patient whose swab was a false negative. I did three 12 hour shifts over a weekend before my swab came back as positive. I did three lateral flows that weekend and all.were.negative. My twice weekly swabs take 48 hours to come back. Do you think I did anything wrong working those 3 days with regular swabs and no symptoms? I probably saw >100 patients in that time. I cover covid and non covid patients so can't not see covid free patients. Let alone the staff I interacted with during those shifts too. We all know the masks aren't great and many colleagues have picked up covid wearing them. As I did that night. Just so you understand the scale of the problem. In hospitals where half the patients have covid, a degree of nosocomial spread is unfortunately inevitable. I'm saying this as someone with a much loved elderly relative currently in hospital for a non covid issue. I do get your frustration, I really really do

Pals is a good place to start though if you want to complain/get more info

My mum is non clinical. Occasionally in labs but nit with patients, but not right now as her team's work has stopped due to covid. They're tested twice a week. In Newcastle hospitals Trust.

She got given a box of pcr tests as we're other staff. She works set days but many staff work shifts so that's why they self test.

In our A&E we are seeing many more frail elderly come in with falls etc, their balance off because they have COVID. He may have gone in with it, or sadly may be hospital acquired.

Unfortunately mortality rate after a hip fracture is very high even in pre COVID times. I echo what pp mention about contacting PALS so they can explain if there was an outbreak, and investigate if infection control measures need to be tightened in the trust he was treated in.

Patients are transmitting it too as some patients are meeting up with family and friends outside in the hospital grounds and then bringing it back to the wards.

@CovoidOfAllHumanity

Ours upgraded from normal surgical masks to FFP3 when dealing with COVID positive patients under pressure from staff who are dropping like 9 pins despite using PPE. Management were very reluctant and want to 'follow national guidance' aka save money and PPE supplies

National guidance is still just normal surgical mask, plastic apron and gloves even with COVID positive patients unless doing an AGP.

We were pushing for that in April but didn’t get anywhere, still haven’t.

Can’t believe the National guidance didn’t change as so many normal activities like sitting up can be aerosol generating.

I agree it’s probably a money thing, but presume would save more on staff absence.

Unfortunately two major things happened re hospital infections, one was staff asked to wash their own uniform, supposed to do this at certain temps, keep it secure, in reality many staff can't do this.
Then cleaning in hospital was out sourced. Cleaning in hospital is a specialist type of cleaning and unfortunately it seems the cleaners are not trained properly.
From my own and other family members visits I've been left appalled by what I've seen and I've written reams about it on the feedback schemes.

So unfortunately I can t see how covid could be possibly kept out in these conditions.
Then added to all of that I've had several recent hospital visits and at no hospital or waiting room or treatment room or long corridors was a single window open.

All hospitals are testing staff regularly. Weekly or twice a week.

@LickEmbysmiling good point I forgot about our uniforms. It’s disgusting that we have to take them home to wash them... Early on in the first pandemic we wore scrubs and then at the end of shift they would be sent to the laundry.

Sorry for your loss.

DP is a doctor and gets tested twice a week. It could be a member of staff (nurse, doctor, HCA, porter...) who brought it in, but it could equally have been another patient.

I second what others have said about asking PALS for information more specific to your FIL.

“Where I work none of the staff get tested on the ward where I work.”

Really? Shocking if so. A relative does the accounts in a care home, doesn’t mix with residents at all, but is tested twice weekly.

I used to work for PALS in a hospital. I am not sure I would go to them for any information that wasn’t already publically available.

@LickEmbysmiling

Unfortunately two major things happened re hospital infections, one was staff asked to wash their own uniform, supposed to do this at certain temps, keep it secure, in reality many staff can't do this. Then cleaning in hospital was out sourced. Cleaning in hospital is a specialist type of cleaning and unfortunately it seems the cleaners are not trained properly. From my own and other family members visits I've been left appalled by what I've seen and I've written reams about it on the feedback schemes.

So unfortunately I can t see how covid could be possibly kept out in these conditions.
Then added to all of that I've had several recent hospital visits and at no hospital or waiting room or treatment room or long corridors was a single window open.

I agree re scrubs and cleaning.

I will also say that staff from different areas can share the same rest areas, changing areas, toilets, kitchen facilities, fridge, kettle microwave etc. That’s a big concern for me at our work.

And also staff working across different wards and departments, eg helping out on covid ward at weekends, back to their own dept in the week etc.