PROTECT OUR DOCTORS AND NURSES
AS UK DEATH TOLL PASSES 1 , 000..
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CORONAVIRUS medics pleaded for more protective masks and gowns yesterday to stop them becoming “sitting ducks”.
And Dr Hisham El Khidir, whose cousin is one of the first UK doctors to die from the virus, said: “If we don’t improve protection more of us will die.” Staff fear they are spreading the disease without protective gear.
He spoke as UK deaths rose to 1,019, NHS England said we will “do well” to keep the toll below 20,000 – and a US vaccine was trialled.
A CRIPPLING shortage of protective gear has left NHS staff “lambs to the slaughter”, a worried medic said yesterday.
The warning came as two doctors became the first frontline workers to die from coronavirus in the UK and the national death toll hit 1,019.
The new figure followed 260 deaths – the biggest daily leap. Of those, 13 were reportedly healthy adults with no underlying condition.
Medics liken scenes in Britain’s hospitals to war zones.
And a nurse said some colleagues without adequate protection are refusing to treat patients, for fear of spreading the disease further. In a series of developments yesterday:
■ The Medical Director of NHS England, Professor Stephen Powis, said if the UK were to keep the number of deaths below 20,000 “we will have done very well”.
■ Confirmed UK cases rose to 17,089, but the true toll is much higher as thousands self-isolate without ever being recorded.
■ PM Boris Johnson said things “will get worse before they get better”.
■ It emerged hospital staff begged a school for spare safety equipment.
■ NHS staff even trawled sites like eBay and Groupon searching for masks, gowns and gloves.
The NHS needs many millions of PPE kits – personal protection equipment. Masks are meant to be used only once to avoid the risk of transmitting disease – but there aren’t enough so staff re-use them.
The developments came as virushit PM Boris Johnson penned a letter to the nation’s 30 million households warning Britain needed to slow the spread of the disease.
Mr Johnson – said by No10 to have “mild symptoms and well enough to be working” – chaired yesterday’s Covid-19 meeting by video conference.
His letter, accompanied by an advice leaflet and written while he is self-isolating in the flat above 11 Downing Street, will cost £5.8million to send. It will say: “If too many people become seriously unwell, the NHS will be unable to cope. This will cost lives. We must slow the spread, reduce the number needing treatment.
RULES
“It’s important for me to level with you. We know things will get worse before they get better. But we are making the right preparations and the more we all follow the rules, the fewer lives will be lost and the
sooner life can return to normal.” Details of the letter came as transplant surgeon Adil El Tayar, 63, was named as a victim of Covid-19.
The father of four died at West Middlesex University Hospital in Isleworth, West London, on Wednesday. It is feared he picked up the virus while working at a hospital in Herefordshire.
His cousin Dr Hisham El Khidir, based in Ipswich, Suffolk, said: “We doctors feel like sitting ducks. Hospitals are about to be flooded with infected patients. If we don’t improve protection for staff across the board then more of us will die.
“That means not only improving access to PPE for high-risk patients but increasing testing facilities so we can see if people coming into hospitals are hiding the disease.”
GP Dr Habib Zaidi, 76, died at Southend Hospital, Essex, on Tuesday 24 hours after being taken ill. While it is not known exactly how either doctor contracted their illnesses, their deaths triggered fears NHS staff could be exposed like colleagues in Italy – where 45 doctors who contracted coronavirus have died.
A junior doctor in the Shrewsbury area spelled out graphically how a lack of PPE put medics at risk.
The doctor said: “We are like lambs to the slaughter. I’ve been given a mask but we are meant to use one per Covid-19 patient to stop the virus spreading, but we don’t have that luxury at the minute.
“One mask will have to do until more are delivered. It’s an absolute shambles.”
At another hospital a junior acute care doctor said half of the unit’s colleagues were off with Covid-19 symptoms or self-isolating.
“The hospital is like a war zone, but I fear we will look back in two weeks and see this as the calm before the storm,” the doctor said.