A GP has criticised the quality of personal protection equipment (PPE) supplied by the Scottish Government to help shield medical staff from Covid-19, calling it “inferior”.
Dr Anne Fraser of the Mistylaw Medical Practice in Lochwinnoch was issued with 50 paper masks, a roll of aprons and some goggles in early March but contacted the health minister with concerns after Jeane Freeman said publicly that all GPs would receive full PPE kits to help them stay safe when treating suspected or confirmed coronavirus cases.
“What we’ve been issued with is flimsy goggles that don’t seal and thin aprons like plastic bags. I wasn’t happy with that. We’ve been trying to source what we can to protect ourselves fully.”
Initially Dr Fraser and colleagues were issuing staff with waterproof milking aprons to wear underneath the government-supplied kit before purchasing disposable overalls and goggles that seal onto the face from hardware stores.
Staff had even resorted to wearing ski masks and swimming goggles to protect themselves
READ MORE: Police to serve emergency closure orders on venues refusing to close in outbreak
After emailing the health minister, Dr Fraser received a reply from an aide that left her “disappointed”.
In her reply she wrote: “Yes we received our equipment as listed. However most GPs feel it is inferior for the intended use.”
She told The Herald: “We need to be protected to do our job properly and also to stop transmission to our staff and if we pick up the virus and are unaware of it, we don’t want to take it back to our families.
“Since I sent the initial email I now know what colleagues in hospitals and other GP practices are saying - they’re running out of stuff, they’re not getting the full kit, they’re wearing the same mask between different patients.”
Although most patients are now triaged over the phone, the medical staff at the GP practice, and a second surgery in Beith, are coming into contact with the elderly and people with underlying health issues and the key issue is, Dr Fraser said, that “you don’t know who is infected and who it not.”
She said: “You’re hearing about doctors in England and Wales getting sick. The thing is when you’re dealing with the same condition time after time throughout the day, you get a virus overload. The more you’re being exposed to it, the more you are at risk, which is why you need better protection.”
Her fear is losing staff to infection and not being able to continue caring for patients. At the Beith practice, district nurses were forced to work with no masks after not being issued with any PPE.
“They’re feeling vulnerable. They’re going out into the community doing dressings, assessing sick people and they’ve got no protection.
“We care about our patients and want to do the best by them and we will do that but give us the stuff that we need.
“We’re not going to be able to provide the service if we are not protected.”
Despite issuing clear information via their Facebook page, Dr Fraser is concerned that people are not following the social distancing guidelines closely enough.
She said: “People need to stay at home, stay away from people. Nice weather’s not a reason to go out.
“At the moment we’re on the same trajectory as Italy and that’s our concern. We’re going to get overwhelmed.
“When you see that even the frontline are now wearing masks and gloves and aprons but they should be fully protected.”
A senior figures in the NHS has pledged that distribution of the personal protective equipment needed by frontline health professionals dealing with Covid-19 will “get better over the next few days”.
Jason Leitch, the national clinical director of healthcare quality and strategy, insisted there was sufficient supply of items, amid concerns that not all medical and care workers who need such items have been provided with them.
However he said the distribution of such items had been “challenging”, as the health service tries to get protective equipment out to more people than normal.
READ MORE: UK Government signals tougher lockdown in public places if public does not heed stay-at-home advice
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, he said that the coronavirus pandemic had come “on us really fast”.
Mr Leitch said: “I know there is enough supply, the distribution has been challenging, because we’re adding in new places, we’re adding in care homes, we’re adding in community pharmacies.
“We’ve not had to do regular PPE transmission to those places before, so that is causing some individual challenges around the four UK countries.
“The third thing is we have to train, particularly the high-end people, the intensive care nurses and those we are training up to help us in intensive care, to know how to work these masks.”
He told how the most protective “high-end” masks were “uncomfortable” for staff to wear, saying: “I have worn them in theatre and they are not fun, they are sore over a long time”.
He also stressed that “you have to make sure the fit is right, so you have to be trained in how to do it for yourselves and also how to help others”.
Mr Leitch said: “I am confident that the beginning of that supply chain is robust and now the distribution will get better over the next few days.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel