Shocking photos of nurses STILL with not enough protection as ministers tell them to kit up if they get within 1m

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When providing patients with care, healthcare professionals should be wearing a surgical face mask, apron, gloves and eye protection if required.

One nurse wearing poor PPE which doesn’t cover up the body

In some circumstances, a long-sleeved disposable fluid-repellent gown, gloves and eye protection must be worn too, Public Health England guidance said.

Several medics have come forward to say they haven’t got enough of what they need.

Shortages of equipment have forced ministers to fast track sending millions of items of kit out to hospitals, GP surgeries and pharmacies across the country in the last week.

The army has been out delivering them too.

Health minister Helen Whately said this morning that hospitals and care providers were getting help.

And the Government would look again at guidance to make sure it was enough, she added.

She told the BBC there has been a “huge logistical exercise” to get the stock to the frontline when there has been a “huge call for that equipment”.

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick told a Downing Street briefing yesterday that all of the equipment may not yet have arrived.

He said 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.”

NHS England’s National Medical Director, Stephen Powis said last week: “We acknowledge there have been some issues related to the supply of equipment and we are working hard and at pace to resolve these.

“We are now confident that all logistical issues are being solved and that every part of the NHS that needs PPE will be supplied in good time with adequate stock.”

Top doctors have warned that NHS professionals will die if they don’t get protection they need now.

The news comes after Dr Amged El-Hawrani became the first frontline hospital worker in the UK to die at the weekend – after he contracted the killer bug

One doctor said staff at a hospital have taken to “hiding” equipment out of sheer desperation, Sky News reported.

“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,” she said.

“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.

“[It is] out of sheer desperation, there is just not enough.”

Another junior doctor added: “There’s not enough, there’s nowhere near enough.

“There is such a shortage, so we feel like it’s inevitable we’re going to get sick. Infection control tells you one thing, the government are advising another thing, there’s so much conflicting advice.”

900 NHS workers were tested for the virus over the weekend and more will be rolled out in the coming days.

 

 

Guidance on what to wear when dealing with patients who may be infected
A healthcare worker wearing more full gear – but those on the frontline say it’s still not enough