Scotland based British Army soldiers are supporting the NHS frontline in Glasgow by using their training for hazardous environments to assist hospital staff with PPE fitting.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is equipment that protectS the user against health risks at work. It can include items such as gloves, eye protection and specialist masks designed to protect the wearer from pathogens.
Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland (2 SCOTS), based in Penicuik and the 3rd Battalion The Rifles (3 RIFLES), based in Edinburgh, have been testing the fit and functionality of the PPE that hospital staff are wearing to protect themselves against COVID-19 during their work on the wards and ICUs.
The troops involved are specially trained CBRN (Chemical, Biological, radiological and Nuclear) instructors, whose job normally involved teaching and testing infantry soldiers to operate, fight and survive in operational areas involving hazards from chemicals, bio-hazards and radioactive substances.
They were joined by several experts from the Defence CBRN Centre in Wiltshire, who got the training up and running, across four NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Hospitals in Glasgow, including the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
The soldiers are part of the Ministry of Defence effort to support the NHS and the Scottish Government in the fight against COVID-19.
Other personnel are providing specialist planning and advisory roles, liaison roles with health boards, providing additional helicopter airlift capacity for patients in rural areas and and assisting with testing for the virus at drive-through testing centres, say the British Army.
Great to see our Army helping out; not their fault but why weren’t they doing this if February?
FIT testing…one of the joyfull jobs that fell to me when a NBCDQ instructor on a ship.
Give people masks… Great! That fixes everything! or so you would think.
But no… if the mask is not fitted and worn correctly on your face its a complete waste of time wearing it.
It would be interesting to see how many NHS staff have been taught about FIT Testing or even undergone the process.
As for the wider UK population mask wearing would be a placebo unless you wear the correct sort of mask and everyone underwent the process above and lets be realistic that isnt going to happen.
Gun you know your stuff so i’ll Ask .I recently went to be fitted with a mask although shown a video of the who’s what’s why’s etc they never really explained the process and what they were checking for when getting it fitted. I was given a mask it was visibly checked over my face then they plugged a tube into it and a wannabe comedian sitting on a laptop had me doing all these movements and breathing and speaking type exercises. He read out a number to his colleague and I got my kit bag of PPE. What does the number relate to? Initially it was low and I was given a different type (more expensive) mask and told to repeat the process which passed. The guy on laptop had what looked like little t light candles sitting on his desk next to the laptop? Clearly this wasn’t for show and must have been for a specific reason?
They measure the flow of air through the mask using a chemical that can be sensed by the testing equipment. The chemical usually has a little bit of a scent to it and is sprayed around externally to you or a candle can be used to put the chemical into the air. If there is to much of the chemical on the reading it means the mask does not fit properly onto your face and its getting in around the sides. Speaking and head movements are done to make sure that those actions dont displace the mask from your face once its correctly fitted and let the chemical in.
A well fitting mask even when you talk or move your head up and down and side to side should not let the tracer chemical through so proving it is fitted correctly to your face.
As you can attest to, its not a quick or easy process to get right. Wearing a bit of cloth held in place by elastic around your ears is not going to do a lot in the real world!
Ahhh I see cheers for the info ??
Its great the armed forces can help the NHS.
However, I would like to see more effort getting face masks to the public. One woman doctor in the Mail on Sunday wrote, that if 80% of the public wore masks when leaving home, the spread of Covid-19 could be brought to a near standstill. That would really stop the NHS from being overwhelmed.
On tv I saw an Australian prof stuck in Thailand. He said paper masks there, were 4 for a £1 & readily available. The Thais got their supply chain up to this after the SARS outbreak. In Britain, such masks are rare for the public & £5 each, if you can get them. The sciencedaily website has an article “The best material for homemade face masks may be a combination of two fabrics” 24/4/2020. Source, American Chemical Society. The best homemade mask had one layer of cotton fabric & two layers of polyester chiffon. It was 80 to 99% effective at stopping droplets. Does not meet NHS standards, but would be suitable for the public. If some clothing factory in the UK or Bangladesh could produce these in volume, I bet they would fly off the supermarket shelves in the UK.
I bought an FFP3 NR from Amazon for around £40 quid. Rip off I’m sure. Articles I read say this is a decent one…what would I know!
I would be interested in Gunbuster’s and other people’s thoughts on this mask who are experienced in all things CBRN.
I don’t doubt his comment masks are placebo, does not stop me wearing it though whenever I travel too and from work or get petrol.
DM, I have been staying in my village, but last Friday, I had to go to the bank in my local town. I parked in a quiet spot & walked deserted side roads, but when I got to the centre, there were of course other people. The reaction was interesting. You turn a corner & see a person coming your way. They see you in horror. Then you pull up your face mask, & a look of relief appears on the other person’s face. I have a couple of simple dust/fume masks that I am stretching out as long as I can, but there needs to be a supply of masks available to the public. Keep the top grade for the NHS, but let the public have those that do not meet the high NHS standard.
Some supermarkets also do clothes. Marks & Spencer, of course. Sainsbury has TU, Tesco has F&F, Asda has George. I doubt many people are buying clothes at the moment, so why not use the supply chain to provide 3 layer, cotton/chiffon masks?
Where I am wearing a mask is mandated in public. Everyone wears one . Its funny to see if you have a background in CBRN . Masks not over nostrils, baggy fits , on chins only, made of cloth, paper, or anything else really, no nose clips, not changed out on a regular basis. Not disposed of correctly so littering the floor.
Today its 32 degs outside and the humidity is way up. Its not pleasant wearing a mask over your mouth. It gets sodden in short order. A virus in droplets can easily go through it as it is not fit tested before use. As I said its a placebo more than anything for the population although not for Med Staff who know how to wear it.
It does not have to be perfect, it just has to be better than nothing.
This is my feeling too John. If anything I’m not putting my hand to my mouth wearing it.
The issue is that its not better than nothing. Its the same as nothing.
Aljazeera had an item on Africa & C-19. Set in an open market with an open sewer running through it. Everyone was poor, yet they all had manufactured masks, whether paper surgeon or moulded dust types. Whenever you see TV of foreign countries, ordinary people seem to have easy access to masks. Yet in Britain, they are either non-available or marked up twenty times normal price or more.
The public wearing masks may use them in ways professionals find exasperating, but surely the public have the right to a mask if they want them? Saying you should not wear one, is like saying “don’t wear a seatbelt or have airbags or antilock brakes as it will make you a less careful driver”.
I would have thought that the NHS should be experts at dealing with Health emergencies – but it seems that along with many other things such as safely delivering babies, and cancer treatment and survival, they are also crap at this. Can you imagine the army drafting in the NHS to fight a war for them? What a shambles.
In my experience, either my own medical care or family, the NHS front line have always been excellent.
It’s not the medical skills that are an issue it is wider inefficiency, more back room staff than doctors and nurses, and a huge budget that seemingly is never enough no matter how many extra billions are pumped in.
I don’t think you can judge them as a shambles with such a situation the likes of which have not been seen since 1918. In war you use assets at your disposal, and that means the military are perfect for that task.
As for the Army drafting in the NHS, most of the RAMC is manned by reservists many or maybe even most of whom work in the NHS when not in an army field hospital.
I get what you are saying but don’t think you can say blanket wide they are crap full stop. I mean there are good and bad competent and incompetent in every walk of life the NHS are no different. They do an amazing job considering and I applaud them.
However I think the main problem with the nhs is those who are running it on a day to day basis I.e the managers and suits . Example the crayon eating lefty joe public who scream and shout that everything is Boris fault and the government in relation to lack of PPE don’t know what they are talking about . THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT ORDER equipment for the NHS they supply the money . So the fact the nhs was woefully and ineptly short of these items is nobodies fault but the lazy arse procurement managers. Likewise it’s not the gov that deal with logistics it’s the nhs . The gov have however helped solve the logistic problem by sending the army in to help the nhs which is why it’s now being done properly.Well done our magnificent Armed forces.
Two years ago there was a major pandemic exercise which was run by the nhs not the government. The conclusion of which was they used the classic line “ we can flex” and claimed to be in a good place on this. They told the gov they were fine and had all the stockpiles they needed (bare in mind Brexit was in the equation). The managers had already stopped ordering from local suppliers put all there eggs in one basket (you guessed it China) knowing it takes 4 weeks for a container ship to arrive from there. Did they pre empty orders knowing this? No they didn’t !. So it’s these incompetent nhs managers to blame for this shameful lack ppe not the government . Alas the crayon eaters have lost the ability to reason due to the toxic effect of eating such crayons and continue to blame the gov for everything.
But In answer to your final point yes I can imagine how bad it would be if the nhs tried to help the army fight a war ?
One of my many rants, is that if the NHS did not need an overpaid, politically correct manager, before 1997, then it does not need that position now. Blair & Brown gave too many useless, overpaid jobs to their mates 1997-2010. Sadly many of them are still a drain on the taxpayer now.
Hi there re masks I believe the major source of infection is through the eyes therefore a visor would be better than a mask , I think the mask is to stop infected people spreading it
Sunglasses & a mask. The new look for Summer 2020.
Am there and doing that now and for the past 4 weeks!
I see the army have issued front line Covid troops with a Covid protective insecticide spray based on eucalyptus oil . Apparently Portion Down are evaluating it’s effectiveness…really. Would be a turn up for the bookies if it turned out that you could kill Covid with Vick Vapour Rub. My grandmother used to swear by it ?