Report Shows Infection Prevention Slipping in UK

According to Bracknell News, a recent report is revealing a slippage in infection prevention standards since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), a U.K. association that sets and monitors standards of care in the country’s emergency departments, complied information on more than 65,000 patients across 127 emergency rooms for the report.

According to the article, the report found that the national average screening of patients for COVID-19 symptoms and conditions that would make a patient more vulnerable to the virus dropped to 17%. The same average for screening had been at 25% in 2022. The report also found 35 of the emergency rooms failed to record any screening for patients.

Furthermore, patients who were found to be potentially infectious were moved to an appropriate place 62% of the time, compared to a previously reported 80%. Moving the patients also took longer—135 minutes, up from 83 minutes reported last year.

In response to the report, Dr. Adrian Boyle, RCEM president, stated, “It is unconscionable that directly after a terrible pandemic that the system is not providing the standards that staff and patients need. We must ensure that an environment where staff and patients are protected properly against infectious diseases is the norm.”