This site is intended for UK healthcare professionals
Medscape UK Univadis Logo
Medscape UK Univadis Logo
News

COVID-19: Hospitalisation in Scottish Healthcare Workers

Public Health Scotland recently published data on COVID-19 infections among Scottish health care workers. NHS Scotland currently employs approximately 160,000 health care workers, either directly or contractually.

Key findings from the report are as follows:

  • From 1 March 2020 to 6 June 2020, the risk of hospitalisation with COVID-19 among health care workers in Scotland was low. A total of 243 (0.15%) health care workers were hospitalised during this period.
  • The risk of hospitalisation was not significantly higher among health care workers in non-patient-facing roles compared with other working age adults (0.07% vs 0.06%).
  • However, those in patient-facing roles did have an increased risk of hospitalisation, with 0.20% being hospitalised with COVID-19 (nearly thrice the risk in non-patient-facing health workers).
  • If COVID-19 infections increase in the population, measures to reduce risk among staff should be considered, measures to reduce exposure to SARS-CoV-2 among staff in patient-facing roles should be undertaken and/or the patient-facing staff considered to be at higher risk of severe disease should be redeployed to non-patient-facing roles.

Follow the latest COVID-19 figures in your region and around the globe with our interactive COVID-19 map.

References

Hospitalisation due to COVID-19 in healthcare workers. Public Health Scotland. 2020 August 5.

This article first appeared on Univadis, part of the Medscape Professional Network.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE