UK frontline staff being 'forced to treat COVID-19 patients with no protective clothing'

Frontline health workers fighting the coronavirus in the UK have no access to basic protective clothing at all, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has revealed.

The RCN took strong exception to the “unacceptable” levels of masks, gloves and aprons in some hospitals and care homes.

Dame Donna Kinnair, chief executive and general secretary of the RCN, issued the warning on the basis of worried emails and phone calls from nurses and is contract to the new government guidance making it clear that anyone within 3ft of coronavirus victims must wear full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

“I am hearing from nurses who are treating patients in Covid-19 wards without any protection at all. This cannot continue. They are putting themselves, their families and their patients at risk,” she said.

“Every minute we wait is a minute too long. All nursing staff, no matter where they work, must feel safe. We need action, we need equipment, we need it now.”

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The RCN chief executive said the Government is finally prioritising Covid-19 testing for NHS staff, including social care, but it is completely unacceptable that weeks into this crisis there are colleagues in all settings – hospitals, community or care homes – who have not been provided with personal protective equipment.

“As the professional trade union representing potentially the largest group of affected workers, the RCN has said repeatedly that we will not accept anything less than aprons, gloves and masks for all staff, in all settings. But this is a minimum – and that is why we are so disappointed even that level of protection has yet to be provided”.

The UK government warned today that medics must wear full protective equipment of they come within three feet of a coronavirus patient.

However, a nurse was seen in just an apron and gloves due to shortages of the gear. Many health workers, including doctors and nurse, have expressed serious concerns about a lack of protective clothing in NHS hospitals.

Staff are also hiding equipment out of sheer desperation. Some workers are saying they are sick as they fear the provisions are inadequate.

Another doctor compared the situation to sending a soldier to war without the necessary equipment while a junior doctor said it feels like it is “inevitable” that they will contract the virus due to a lack of PPE.

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Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick told a Downing Street briefing yesterday that 170 million masks, some 42.8 million gloves, 13.7 million aprons, 182,000 gowns, almost 10 million items of cleaning equipment and 2.3 million pairs of eye protectors were being delivered to frontline staff.

He said: “Every single GP practice, dental practice and community pharmacy has had a PPE delivery.”

“All care homes, hospices, and home care providers have, or will shortly, receive a delivery.”

“There is some, but now we’re in a situation where people are having to hide them and store them for their own staff,” the obstetrician, who chose to speak anonymously, said. “Our bosses are having to store a certain number.

“We are working in a hospital where there are key workers – including orderlies, porters, healthcare assistant – they have a right to be protected too.”

“Our orderly was walking around the ward yesterday with a sleep mask over her face – an eye mask over her nose and mouth as a make-shift mask. They’ve said she doesn’t need a mask because she’s not in contact with Covid patients but so many patients are asymptomatic. We should be managing patients as though everybody has it,” she added.

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“There is not enough kit. PPE is locked away in our hospital and only one person has got the key because people are panicking. So, some people are going in and grabbing some of the stuff because they want to walk around with a mask.”

“What people are doing is they are hiding them because they don’t want just anyone grabbing the kit, so the bottom line is there is not enough kit. [It is] out of sheer desperation, there is just not enough.”