Background
The worldwide outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has already put
healthcare workers (HCWs) at a high risk of
infection.1 The question of how to give HCWs the best
protection against infection is a priority. Reports of personal
protective equipment (PPE) shortages, with regional and international
differences in the approach to deployment of PPE have repeatedly made
national media headlines.2 During the past few months,
as the UK has tackled the coronavirus pandemic, HCWs including doctors
and nurses have complained of a lack of adequate PPE kit such as gowns,
masks and gloves.
Many readers of this journal have been working closely with patients
with COVID-19 in recent weeks, and so have a personal interest in
ensuring that such evidence as exists is made available and applied in
the everyday clinical setting in the UK and elsewhere.