Obtaining PPE poses challenge
A reserve supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) for the province will be difficult to amass, as supply issues and rising prices affect the global supply, says Health Minister Dr. John Haggie.
The regional health authorities announced on Wednesday that additional procedures will begin to be done to address the huge backlog of procedures pushed to make room in the health-care system for COVID-19 cases.
In a news release, Eastern Health says rehabilitation services, physiotherapy, audiology and women’s health services such as fertility services will begin now that the province has entered Alert Level 3 of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Medical imaging, endoscopy, cardiac diagnostics, laboratory services and surgical services will see an increased number of procedures completed, as well.
Haggie says while procedures are increasing, the supply of PPE to the province presents a challenge with addressing the backlog.
“At the moment, the deliveries are light and late. They’re matching pretty well the burn rate we’re using in the system at the moment. We need a better, larger and more predictable supply of PPE before we can start to feed that into the supply chain,” he said.
For one example, a planeload of $45-million worth of PPE landed in the province, but Haggie says the company wouldn’t allow for inspection of the product, so it was turned away.
Haggie says the other issue with the PPE supply is ballooning prices.
“If you look in January when we placed our order for the first quarter before COVID arrived here, we were paying $5, maybe $6 per gown. The last price I saw was north of $35 a gown,” said Haggie.
“At 3,000 a day, that’s a significant quantum.”
Tory health critic David Brazil says the backlog of procedures is a major concern.
“The issue becomes now about being prepared on a goforward basis. The issue we have, as I see it, we’re already behind when it comes to basic procedures that are necessary. To do those, you need proper
PPE. There’s always been issues with wait times in Newfoundland and Labrador,” said Brazil.
“Now you add, we’ve got 15,000 procedures that have to be done that we’re trying to catch up on. The minister is now saying that at best we’ll be able to get to 75 per cent with the PPES, if we’re able to actually get those in play. That’s going to have another detrimental affect on our health-care system.”
Brazil says he’s aware of companies in the province with a stock of PPE that have not been accepted for use by the province.
Haggie says he’s heard of the local companies Brazil is referring to, but the offered equipment did not meet safety standards.
“We had an offer of some masks, for example, which turned out not to meet the N-95 standard. There have been issues like that. We’re open to any offer like that, if there is a company or an individual who wants to sell PPE that they have,” said Haggie.
“As long as it meets the certification requirements that are in place at the moment, then we’re happy to chat with them. I’m not aware of any currently.”