Social distancing in the workplace

Keeping staff and patients safe

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHS GGC) have developed a number of guides and resources for staff and managers on how to establish procedures that maintain social distancing whilst delivering essential care.

“It is also accepted that in many of the services that we provide and tasks that are undertaken, it is not always possible to maintain a distance from others. However, these documents help to set out a number of key principles to be applied.”

To ensure all NHS GCC staff are protected, the guidance outlines processes for a number of scenarios of staff day-to-day routines. These include:

• travelling to and from work
• how to move around the hospital
• working within departments
• the use of facilities such as common rooms and toilets
• how to conduct meetings safely
• working in clinical, outpatient and community settings, and
• what to do in accident/emergency situations (including unplanned scenarios such as a fire).

Additionally, they have included a ‘risk assessment template’ to review what measures and controls are currently in place and highlight those which need to be implemented. Examples of ‘risk assessment inventories’ for different workplace settings and a catalogue of signage are also provided for staff to use throughout their wards/clinics/offices.

The full list of resources is available on the NHS GGC website.

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