Dentists fear shortage of facial masks
A SHORTAGE of face masks due to the novel coronavirus is about to hit dental surgeries with some suppliers charging $227 for a box of 50 masks. They previously cost $20. Gold Coast dentists say that while the focus for medical stock is concentrated on doctors, a shortage in masks would impact their ability to see patients.
“Every patient we see has to wear a mask, so do our dental assistants. If we don’t have them we can’t see patients,” Helensvale Dental practice manager Lauren Eastwood said.
Ms Eastwood said the practice was waiting and watching supplies while ordering to their limit regularly.
The Bulletin has been told estimated dental stockpiles will last for the next four weeks.
A surgery who sees about 40 patients can use upwards of 160 masks a day.
Major distributor Henry Schein has placed a five-box limit per practice on all masks, while supplier Livingstone Dental Supplies has upped prices for surgical masks from less than $20 to $227 per box and $2310 for a carton of 500 boxes.
The Australian Dental Association (ADA) said it was aware of significant price increases because of high demand by a few suppliers, and that one supplier had been referred by the Pharmacy Guild to the ACCC for investigation.
“While masks prices have increased significantly from around 30 cents each to between $2 to $10 each, the ADA does not feel there has been any opportunistic behaviour by our long-term suppliers,” ADA CEO Damian Mitsch said.
The ADA has asked the public to heed the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer’s advice that there is no need for them to wear masks and free up precious reserves for health services.
Starbright Dental Southport practice manager Jo Brown said stockpiles were “good as gold” thanks to preplanning.
“As soon as I saw the outbreak of coronavirus in January, I made a bulk order,” Ms Brown said.
“I’ve been doing this for long enough. The same thing happened with bird flu, so I made sure to stock up on everything.”
Meanwhile, hand sanitiser is flying off Gold Coast shelves with one chemist in Nerang selling out of one brand and others in Southport having limited supplies.
Coles supermarket has posted online that it is “currently experiencing a shortage of some antibacterial handwashes and hand sanitiser products due to extremely high customer demand”.
Priceline’s online store has marked 26 types of hand sanitiser as “out of stock online” but available in store.
THE SAME THING HAPPENED WITH BIRD FLU, SO I MADE SURE TO STOCK UP ON EVERYTHING.