Transparent face masks trial launched at UHDB
University Hospitals of Derby and Burton is leading a national trial to collect data on the benefits of using transparent face masks. Masks were reintroduced across our sites last week after an increase in Covid-19 infections in the community. Transparent face masks have the potential to improve communication between patients and clinicians, especially those within the D/deaf and neurodivergent communities.
Dr Samantha Mills, Emergency Medicine Doctor and National Transparent Mask Trial Lead said: “I was inspired to focus on this because of the impact masks were having on one of my close colleagues in the Emergency Department who is deaf. I was keen to support them and so actively looked for ways to help, including looking at the sorts of masks we wear.
“D/deafness can mean anything from total hearing loss, using British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation to communicate, to any level of impairment to hearing. The latter may be assisted with hearing aids but many people with hearing loss rely on visual communications, such as lip reading. With 1 in 6 people being deaf, that’s why the introduction of masks had such a big impact on many of our staff and patients.
“We have been working on this as a Trust since 2020, initially surveying all our colleagues, finding nearly 1% self-identified as being D/deaf. If you multiply that across the 1.3 million strong NHS workforce, it is a significant number of people. We initially trialled some transparent masks with our patients and colleagues with D/deafness, with hundreds of patients being contacted or having the offer to be involved. I hope this new trial of the Department of Health and Social Care approved transparent masks will mean the benefits will help anyone with the need for improved communication, especially the thousands of people nationally who have become more isolated due to the need to wear masks.”
Dr Mills, and her colleagues, including Rob Ridge, Emma Bloor, Sandra Woodburn and Dr Elizabeth Bateman, have already received a grant from the Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) Innovation Fund to support D/deaf colleagues and patients with the impacts of the Covid 19 pandemic. Since then the Trust has put together a number of supportive education packages for staff and information posters to improve our communications with the D/deaf community. As well as a 24/7 accessible hearing aid accessory library to benefit colleagues and patients.
This new trial will go further, to broaden the participation to anyone impacted by the communication health inequalities that mask can create. It is so important that we keep our colleagues and patients safe by wearing masks, while also looking to mitigate any unintended communication impacts.
If you work for a partner health and social care organisation and want to get involved, please email samantha.mills3@nhs.net for support, further information and the sharing of resources.
Watch the below videos to find out more about the transparent face masks trial >