NHS medics threaten to quit over safety concerns as doctor slams ‘inadequate’ protection saying she is treating coronavirus victims with small gloves, ‘little plastic aprons’ and has to wear scrubs covered in patient sweat
- Dr Rinesh Parmar said health professionals could ‘give up the profession’
- Dr Lisa Anderson said those working on wards to not have the right equipment
- Said the government is not following World Health Organization guidelines
- Comes as UK ropes in volunteers and plans for a new field hospital in London
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
NHS medics working across the UK fighting the coronavirus pandemic could be forced to ‘quit the profession’ they love it the government fails to provide adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).
Many health professionals are being forced to wear the ‘same scrubs for the entire day’ and say they feel ‘abandoned’ by the government due to the lack of PPE they have been given.
One cardiologist at major London teaching hospital has today claimed that the government is not following the recommendations set out by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Dr Lisa Anderson said doctors working on coronavirus wards are ‘taking risks’ when it comes to their own health due to the ‘inadequate’ protection they are being provided with.
A member of the ambulance service wearing personal protective equipment is seen leading a patient (unseen) into an ambulance at St Thomas’ Hospital in London on March 24, 2020
Elsewhere Dr Rinesh Parmar, chair of the Doctor’s Association UK told the Guardian that if doctors feel there is no longer adequate PPE equipment, then they will have ‘no choice’ but to ‘give up the profession they love’.
It comes after the government announced it would be opening a new hospital at the ExCel centre in London to help deal with the outbreak.
Dr Lisa Anderson (pictured above) said she has to wear the same scrubs every day
The government also announced it would be looking for over 250,000 new volunteers to help with the outbreak. The recruitment drive has since been undermined by doctors and nurses already working, as they claim they are still being expected to take ‘unacceptable risks’.
Doctors across the country have become ‘anxious’ about the shortage of PPE and with current staff members already highlighting the shortage, it adds to the unease around how the government will supply volunteers and the new London hospital with PPE.
One doctor said she has an immuno-comprised husband and that she was putting his life at risk everyday, she added that is this issue with PPE was ‘not sorted soon then I’m off’.
Another said that without PPE the work force would be ‘decimated’ and questioned who would look after the sick if they were not working.
One added: ‘I feel abandoned, we don’t have the PPE we desperately need.’
Dr Rinesh Parmar (pictured above) said people could walk out of the profession they love if a shortage of equipment continues
So far in the UK there have been 422 deaths and 8,077 confirmed cases of Covid-19. London has been hit hardest by the virus and there have been 143 deaths in the capital and 2,189 confirmed cases.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4 today Dr Lisa Anderson said as well as doing her usual job as a cardiology professional, she is also helping out on the coronavirus wards.
‘Patients I saw yesterday are coughing they are covered in sweat and I am wearing the same blues throughout the day, there’s a real shortage of blues and you need to wear the same ones for the entire day.
‘I have got patients sweat on there, there is nothing I can do, I then go and see my other patients.
‘We are just desperately discharging our patients, to get them out of the hospital the covid negative ones, and I’m discharging them not just to their own homes but to nursing homes, rehab centres and prisons, the ramifications for this are huge.’
She added that one of the biggest challenges health workers are facing at the moment is that the ‘government’s guidelines are not in line with the WHO’s’.
‘The WHO recommendations for most Covid patients are a full gown, visa mask and gloves, we are sent in equipped with short gloves, a little plastic apron and a surgical face mask, it’s completely inadequate.
‘We were told by our virologist yesterday that on our Covid wards due to the turnover of the air that the virus is in the air all the time that we should try and wear some kind of visas. We have no visas, it is not government guidance for us to have visas.’
Dr Anderson said the government is ‘going out on a limb and putting health workers at risk’.
‘We know that in Italy when they didn’t have enough PPE that 10 per cent of the entire work force are infected. That is a risk that is far too great to take, this is not a trivial disease.’
Dr Parmar added that health professionals are not being given the PPE recommended by the WHO.
‘That’s the travesty of this situation that the government needs to protect front line health workers and in return they will give 100 per cent.
‘But the government hasn’t kept its side of the bargain with the NHS staff by not having enough PPE available to safeguard the health of doctors and nurses’.