3,400 NHS staff infected
Toll on medics revealed as it emerges their bosses KNEW of Covid risks
MORE than 3,400 NHS workers have been infected with coronavirus since the pandemic swept Scotland.
The stark figure highlights just now many frontline healthcare workers have come in contact with the potentially deadly infection.
Documents obtained by The Scottish Mail on Sunday also reveal that health boards recognised the severity of the virus from the beginning of the outbreak.
Information obtained under freedom of information laws shows health boards across the country, in their role as employers, carried out health and safety assessments to see how dangerous the virus was for doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff.
They also received advice from experts that classified Covid-19 as a potential ‘serious hazard to employees’. The revelations have reignited the row over the personal protective equipment (PPE) given to NHS workers.
Critics claim it is now clear that, despite knowing early on that coronavirus was a contagious infection that could cause harm, health boards had failed to provide adequate PPE. Scottish Labour health spokesman Monica
Lennon said: ‘There is potential for legal challenges down the line. The Scottish Government was underprepared for the pandemic and was too slow to issue PPE and this exposed healthcare workers to the virus. This could have been avoided had we listened to experts and frontline staff and learned the lessons other countries were sharing with us.’
Overall, at least 3,417 workers – including doctors, nurses, auxiliaries and porters – have tested positive for coronavirus across all of Scotland’s health boards.
NHS Western Isles was the only board to say it had no positive cases, while NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde had the highest number, with 699 staff testing positive.
NHS Shetland has had five workers confirmed as being infected with the virus, while NHS Orkney has had fewer than five.
NHS Grampian had 676 members of staff with positive tests, with 353 in NHS Ayrshire and Arran.
Documents also make it clear that health boards were aware early on of the danger posed by Covid-19.
The Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP) met early in the year and agreed the virus was a hazard group 3.
The Health and Safety Executive describes this as a ‘biological agent that can cause severe human disease and may be a serious hazard to employees; it may spread to the community, but there is usually effective prophylaxis or treatment available’. In June, Ministers disclosed that supplies of specialist equipment to protect against the disease were not significantly ramped up until April.
But freedom of information responses show that from the end of February onwards, risk assessments were carried out when the Government began communicating the potential of a pandemic. Each health board confirmed the ACDP determined the classification of the virus, which has not been changed.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said health and safety fears had been raised by its members.
RCN Scotland director Theresa Fyffe said: ‘Members expressed to us their concerns at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic about the lack of PPE in their areas. Members working in high-risk environments also told us they had not had their mask fit tested, which is an essential procedure for effective performance of equipment, and had not had training in putting on and taking off PPE.
‘We raised our members’ concerns with the Government and relevant health and safety bodies.’
Wilma Brown, from the health committee of trade union Unison, said: ‘We were at the forefront of improving the supply of PPE, which was very patchy across Scotland.
‘But, PPE is not an answer within itself. Staff have to be trained to use the equipment, knowing how to put it on and take it off is vital.
‘Staff also need training in infection control and prevention.
‘It is apparent that some staff were not adequately trained in these areas, particularly in care homes. Unison ensured this was recognised by the Scottish Government.’
Dr Lewis Morrison, chairman of the British Medical Association Scotland, said: ‘There is no denying that the initial PPE supply response wasn’t good enough in some places and that caused doctors considerable stress and anxiety.
‘As a result of the combined efforts of many staff side organisations, and from the invaluable lessons that were learned from those initial few weeks, the position on PPE provision in Scotland clearly improved.’
‘No denying initial PPE supply response wasn’t good enough’