RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Navigating the shifting sands of filtering facepiece respirator provision during the COVID-19 pandemic: a system response for maximising staff safety JF BMJ Open Quality JO BMJ Open Qual FD British Medical Journal Publishing Group SP e001163 DO 10.1136/bmjoq-2020-001163 VO 10 IS 3 A1 Carrick Allison A1 Mike Tennant A1 Peter Xiang A1 Jennifer Stephens A1 Oliver Ball A1 Niall Wilton YR 2021 UL http://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/10/3/e001163.abstract AB Introduction Personal protective equipment is essential to protect health workers and patients and to ensure confidence when dealing with aerosolised disease transmission. We describe the process for ensuring adequate filtering facepiece respirator (FFR) qualitative fit testing at a local level during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods Cascaded training is described, which allowed rapid spreading of the testing process, with supervision allowing quality assurance throughout. Testing consisted of subjective ‘fit checking’, checking for leaks, followed by qualitative hood testing.Results The original respirators (3M 1870) had a hood test pass rate of 87.5%. Following identification of this as a non-renewable and unsustainable option, a domestically manufactured and sustainable Help-It P2 duckbill-type respirator was adopted as the primary FFR. The hood test pass rate for this respirator was only 54%. A third respirator was made available (3M 1860), with a high pass rate of 80% but also a limited and non-renewable resource. Algorithms were constructed highlighting different proportional use of the respirators depending on the most limited resource.Conclusion The testing format used is simple, reproducible and can be used by any hospital organisation when occupational health and safety departments are unable to provide the service during overwhelming demand. Qualitative fit testing is a scalable and effective method for ensuring appropriately sized and shaped FFRs, minimising resource consumption in the process. The use of a product with appropriate filtration capacity but a lower fit test pass rate (domestic duckbill respirator) as a replaceable resource facilitated adequate respirator availability for staff that would otherwise not have been possible. The provision of an FFR fit registry allows an organisation to make appropriate respirators available to staff from different sources as supply and demand changes.Data are available upon request.