‘‘Nurses, GP clinics, home health care workers and pharmacists are still reporting PPE shortages and regional inconsistency about rules and recommendations.’’

SUNDAY POLITICS, LETTERS, OPINION & SHARON MURDOCH’S CARTOON

There’s a petition doing the rounds at the moment to declare Ashley Bloomfield the next New Zealander of the Year. How about we make it all frontline nurses instead? But first, let’s keep them alive long enough to collect the award.

Everyone working in a hospital, primary or community care setting, close to a suspected or confirmed coronavirus Covid-19 patient should have access to personal protective equipment (PPE).

It shouldn’t have to be said.

But, in the past week, the Ministry of Health confirmed the number of health workers with Covid-19 has surged by nearly 60 per cent over just four days.At every Covid-19 press briefing the Government has insisted there is enough PPE to go around. But health workers are telling a very different story to Bloomfield.

There have been stories about masks disintegrating in workers’ hands, news of PPE being rationed by DHBs, and shocking reports that Auckland nurses have been asked to recycle masks.

On March 27, Director-General of

Health Bloomfield told RNZ that PPE supplies were plentiful and steady and distribution was being made ‘‘rock solid’’.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister David Clark said more masks would be sent to DHBs, while local production was being ramped up. A few days later, it emerged the Government had ordered the release of 11 million masks from pandemic reserves. That sparked questions about how many were left.

In the first few days of April, an order of 41 million masks from China was confirmed and due to arrive over a period of six weeks.

But two weeks on, and nurses, GP clinics, home health care workers and pharmacists are still reporting shortages and regional inconsistencies about rules and recommendations. A general surgeon at Middlemore Hospital was told by bosses that her use of protective equipment was making other staff feel anxious.

At Burwood Hospital, where a number of patients have died with Covid-19, staff complained PPE was not made available to all nurses.

Exposure to Covid-19 increases the risk of infection. Worldwide, there have been countless reported deaths of health workers: in Italy nearly 40 doctors died, in the UK there are 27 verified deaths of NHS staff.

In the face of all this evidence and workers begging for protection, Bloomfield continued to insist there is plenty of stock of PPE in New Zealand. Until late on Friday, when Clark slipped out a press release announcing an extra $200m to pay for more equipment. Within eight weeks, 75 million items will be delivered to New Zealand, he said.

The Ministry of Health has also announced a shake-up of the ordering process.

Every single day, while we stay safe at home, New Zealand’s health care workers show up for work, risking themselves and their families.

They are the backbone in the battle against this pandemic: our lives depend on them risking their lives.

Now they can breathe a sigh of relief - but they deserved better than to be publicly and regularly contradicted by those who should have been working to secure better stocks.

The Government calls them essential workers: it was essential that they delivered the highest protection to those staff, without question.

People are getting frustrated at reporters for repeatedly asking questions about shortages of PPE. But that’s because health workers are telling a very different story to Ashley Bloomfield.