In August NARU was asked by the NHS England EPRR team to help with the development of clinical guidance for the management of patients with suspected and confirmed viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF) such as Ebola.
Leading this work was NARU Medical Director Dr John Stephenson, who says:
“The main objective was to rapidly collect opinions from subject matter experts from the Health and Safety Executive, Public Health England and the wider NHS and to use those to develop clinical guidelines for ambulance services in a very short time frame.”
This work led on to the NARU Education Centre’s involvement in producing training aids for ambulance services and the wider NHS acute sector, including the development of a training film and specific posters about the PPE and donning / doffing requirements. Read more about NARU’s involvement here.
Dr Stephenson is now working with Public Health England to develop an off-the-shelf exercise to test the preparedness of areas where VHF patients may present.
More information can be obtained in our Ebola Resources section or from john.stephenson@wmas.nhs.uk.