Resources

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, several changes to our usual guidelines are enforced at the Chandler House Research Facilities. Please follow these points carefully and see https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/resumption-person-testing for direct-from-division guidelines.

Allowed testing categories

The use of different testing categories has now finished. Testing rules are the same for all previous categories:

• Mask-wearing (filtered, e.g., FFP3 – FFP3 specifically now seems to be a suggestion rather than a requirement) – this involves both yourself and your participant: participants can remove their mask if necessary for the study, but try to remain a safe distance from them if so;
• Room ventilation should now be ‘appropriate’ – I recommend a ‘UCL-style hour’ approach, meaning that you should aim to start testing at 5 minutes past the hour and finish testing at 5 minutes to the hour, so that each hour-block of testing includes a 10-minute ventilation window. Please open the booth door fully for this time period and remember to turn on the air conditioning in both booth H and the booth you used.
• Temperature checks (using temperature gun-style thermometers) - These are a new divisional requirement. Two such thermometers have been ordered and will be available at reception when they arrive later this week – please test your participant by measuring the temperature on their forehead prior to allowing them entry to the building (i.e., before they cross the reception barriers). Note that they will have a laser eye-sight dot, so be careful not to shine them into participant’s eyes – please test on the floor first. A temperature above 37.8 indicates a fever and is cause for halting a testing session;
• Checking yourself and your participant for symptoms of COVID the day before and the day of testing. The self-assessment questionnaire for this can be found at the link, but does not need to be filled out in advance – an email or phone confirmation that the questions have been read and you/the participant confirm there are no concerns is sufficient. The participant does still need to fill this out and continue to provide their phone number, email and address for contact tracing purposes on the day of testing;
• Gloves should continue to be used for placing electrodes/sensors on participants’ skin;
• You may continue to request that a lateral flow test be taken prior to taking part, but we do not have them on site. If you do require lateral flow tests, please contact me directly.
• You may continue to use the lab PPE that remains available and feel free to let me know if anything needs replenishing as I do want to make sure everyone in the lab feels safe.
• Finally, ensure that you continue to ask participants to fill in the COVID information and consent form. The latest versions are linked above. The information sheet for testing children and guardian information and consent form are also linked. 

Induction

Every person using the lab should come for an induction before they are allowed to use the lab. This has returned to the pre-pandemic induction, with only limited added information regarding COVID-19 protocols.

General guidelines

Please ensure that the following are in order prior to resuming testing:

• Ethics amendments have been signed off by the relevant authority (UCL REC or the previous approver);
• Return-to-site courses (Return toCampus and Fire Safety) have been completed and  TN-086 form (see attached) has been returned to Dave Cushing;
• If you are a PI, it is your responsibility to ensure that all experimenters are familiarised with the TSOP and building guidelines, as well as specialised study-specific ethics procedures;
• You have familiarised yourself with the PALS TSOP document;
• You have contacted the lab manager to arrange an induction.

In-depth guides to using the specialised booths are available via the UCL Chandler House Research Facilities Wiki (UCL log-on required). 

Minutes for CHRFMG meetings are available on Moodle (UCL Moodle log-on required).