UK Doctors Finding It Harder To Get PPE Kit to Treat Covid-19 Patients

By Staff, Agencies

Doctors working in the riskiest areas of the United Kingdom’s hospitals with Covid-19 patients are finding it harder to get protective kit, despite ministerial pledges to solve the problem, a research revealed.

The Royal College of Physicians condemned the apparently worsening availability of personal protective equipment [PPE] as “truly terrible” and warned that frontline staff’s lives are at risk as a result.

Among doctors performing aerosol-generating procedures [AGP], in which patients with the disease release droplets from their mouth, 37% cannot always access a visor to wear while 31% have not been able to obtain a full-length surgical gown. Both are key elements of the full PPE NHS staff are advised to wear when participating in an AGP, such as a patient being intubated before being ventilated.

A survey undertaken by the college, to which 2,129 hospital doctors responded last week, found medics are finding it harder generally access to any sort of PPE. Just over a quarter [27%] said they could not get the kit they needed to keep them safe while treating people with Covid-19, up from 22% who said the same when the RCP conducted the same survey at the start of April.

“We’re living through the darkest times the NHS has ever faced and this survey shows the reality of the situation facing hospital doctors at the moment”, said Prof Andrew Goddard, the college’s president.

“The lack of PPE remains their biggest concern and it is truly terrible that supply has worsened over the past three weeks rather than improved.”

In remarks that lay bare leading doctors’ frustration with ministers’ repeated emphasis on the hugely increased amounts of PPE that have reached the frontline in recent weeks, Goddard added: “Healthcare workers couldn’t care less how many billion pieces of PPE have been ordered or supplied. If it isn’t there when they need it, they are in harm’s way.”

Hospital bosses said the college’s findings underlined the need for any future inquiry into the UK’s handling of the pandemic to include the action taken on PPE.