PROTECT US
NHS workers plead with Government for more protective kit ...and call on the public to stay at home over the holidays
DESPERATE NHS staff have pleaded for more protective kits as some reveal they rip up curtains to make their own.
Others are reusing scrubs in the fight against coronavirus. Health Secretary Matt Hancock, left, insisted kit is being delivered. Chief nurse Ruth May begged Brits to stay home this weekend to “protect my staff ”.
BRITAIN’S chief nursing officer last night begged Brits to avoid flocking to parks and beaches as Easter temperatures soar.
Ruth May made an impassioned plea to the public in a bid to help protect NHS staff battling coronavirus.
Police forces are ramping up patrols to stop people flouting the restrictions, with fines of up to £60 if they do not comply.
But it seems even with the 25C temperatures yesterday many are taking heed of the warnings, with beaches and motorways largely deserted on the first day of the Easter bank holiday weekend.
Gordon Ramsay was spotted out in Polzeath Cornwall, with a coffee and a bag of shopping. He was chatting to another man. The 53-year-old TV chef has reportedly angered locals by travelling to his second home in the county.
Ms May’s plea came as the UK death toll rose by 980 to 8,958 – making it the darkest day of the outbreak so far.
She said: “Our nurses, our healthcare staff need to be able to get to work. It’s right and proper they do, but my ask of everybody, please, stay home, save lives and protect my staff.”
Deputy medical officer Jonathan Van Tam added: “We are in a dangerous phase still. And I need to reinforce that again to you, that this is not over.”
He said there had been a steady increase in the number of people occupying hospital beds.
Figures show the “curve is bending”, but he added: “It’s impossible to say we have peaked. London has gone down in the last day, but Yorkshire and the North East has gone up.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “This is a national effort, and every single person can play their part in this plan. This Easter will be another test of the nation’s resolve. It’s a time of year when people normally come together. But however warm the weather, however tempting your local beach or park, we need everyone to stay at home. “Because in hospitals across the country, NHS staff are battling day and night to keep desperately sick people breathing, and they need you to stay at home.” Temperatures in the South are expected to hit 24C today and 18C in the North. Police
across the land have boosted patrols and roadside checks.
The four-day Bank holiday would normally bring 14 million drivers on to the nation’s highways.
But if yesterday was anything to go by, Brits are finally getting the message after weekends of packed public places.
Lyme Regis in Dorset was eerily empty compared to a
photo from this time last year when the seafront was packed with sun-worshippers.
And Gatwick Airport’s South Terminal, which would usually be swarming with travellers escaping for an Easter getaway, was all-but abandoned.
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority in Wales shut down popular beaches and the coastal path
telling visitors “we’re closed”. Police carried out 1,300 spot checks on drivers and sent non-essential travellers home.
Nine people were fined after some drove more than 150 miles to visit beaches. One told police he wanted to go “crab fishing”. Dyfed Powys Police Chief Constable Mark Collins said: “My message is… we are out, patrolling. We’ll be
stopping vehicles, turning them around.” Two men from Yorkshire were pulled over driving to the Lake District to go canoeing.
Cumbria’s Roads Policing Unit posted: “We wish to thank 99% of the public for complying with guidelines. However, two Yorkshire chaps chose to head to Windermere for canoeing.” In North
Yorkshire officers will patrol the Dales, North York Moors and seaside resorts, where car parks are closed and fines are being issued.
Checkpoints have also been set up in Devon and Cornwall. Travellers without a good reason will be fined, including
second home owners. The Met will be carrying out foot patrols in London parks and green spaces. A Royal Parks spokesman pleaded with Londoners not to stop to sunbathe or for picnics.
He said: “The NHS is under enormous strain and it’s crucial that people protect themselves and others by staying 2m apart and not gathering with people outside their household.
“Please only use the parks for exercise. No sunbathing.
No picnics.” Cambridge Police announced they had even been patrolling supermarket aisles to check if people were shopping for essential items.
And the force said: “Good to see everyone was abiding by social distancing measures.”
DESPERATE medics battling Covid-19 say they are cutting up hospital curtains to make gowns and using bits of plastic as makeshift masks due to kit shortages.
Damning accounts from the front line also tell of hospital staff raiding cupboards to re-use old theatre scrubs.
It came as London hospitals were warned not to expect gown deliveries for at least the next few days – and after three nurses who had posted a snap of themselves working in bin bags reportedly tested positive for the virus.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock tried to tackle the row last night, unveiling a “three-strand plan” to end the personal protective equipment crisis – which includes a “Herculean logistical effort”.
Strand one is to circulate PPE guidance to staff, strand two is to speed up distribution to hospitals from one delivery every three days to daily. And strand three is to boost purchasing from abroad and make more here.
Mr Hancock said more than 742 million pieces of PPE have been delivered during the outbreak. But despite assurances, senior medics warn kit is not reaching enough frontline staff.
One senior doctor claimed intensive care staff are being cut due to a lack of PPE.
Advocacy group EveryDoctor revealed medics say they are using plastic goggles from their kids’ schools – and images sent in show staff with homemade masks using plastic and straps from B&Q.
And the Mirror saw a report of doctors being measured for aprons made of plastic curtains, reading: “No immediate stocks of gowns due in national supply chain in the next few days. We are unsighted on when deliveries will be.”
EveryDoctor’s Dr Julia Patterson said: “It is unbelievable healthcare workers are having to make homemade PPE from curtains.
“By not providing intensive care staff with sufficient PPE, the Government is placing lives at risk. Guidance needs to be revised in line with World Health Organisation recommendations and the funds need to be spent. We are facing a humanitarian crisis.”
One anonymous doctor at King’s College Hospital in South London said they are cutting staff levels on the ICU ward as “there simply aren’t enough PPE”. And they are planning to re-use old theatre gowns as stocks for singleuse gowns could run out this weekend.
The source said: “All staff are worried about the lack of basic kit. There are not enough gowns and colleagues in similar hospitals across the capital say the same. There is also a lack of dialysis machines we need to treat the most seriously ill coronavirus patients.
“We are using around 2,000 singleuse PPE gowns a day. If they run out we will have no choice but to re-use old theatre gowns, which can be washed, but the turnaround is a day or two.”
Mr Hancock said the PPE shipped in the crisis includes 161 million masks, 127 million aprons, a million gowns and 345 million pairs of gloves. He said the kit has gone to hospitals, ambulance trusts, GPs, social care and pharmacies – and some items can be used for a whole session and do not need to be changed after each patient.
Mr Hancock added: “This is a Herculean logistical effort. We’ve brought together the NHS, private industry and the Army – in fact, the armed forces – to create a giant PPE distribution network on an unprecedented scale.”
He also said the pressures sit within a “huge international demand” for PPE and a “global squeeze” on supply.
But the British Medical Association said last night that PPE is at “dangerously low levels” in the London and Yorkshire regions. Dr Chaand Nagpaul,
BMA council chair, said: “We note the Government’s three-strand PPE plan.
“However, PPE should not be a ‘precious resource’ and for staff facing shortages of protection they need it today. They don’t want to hear of a plan but that this vital equipment is made available to the front line now.”
Royal College of Nursing director Susan Masters added: “These figures on deliveries are only impressive when nursing staff stop contacting me to say what they need wasn’t available. People are petrified. They have seen colleagues die already.”
Mr Hancock also said last night his goal is that “everyone” in a critical role gets the PPE they need. He said:
“There’s enough PPE to go around but only if it’s used in line with our guidance.”
But the UK has refused to stick to WHO advice that all medics have fulllength protective gowns. Instead, NHS England and Public Health England said sleeveless aprons could be worn for some treatments.
Campaigners fear the difference in advice was due to lack of stock.
Masks or goggles should also be available to all medics, the WHO says. But UK guidance states eyewear be used only if they make a risk assessment that it is necessary.
NHS Supply Chain said: “We are continuing to deliver millions of products every day. Over the last few days, 119,000 gowns were delivered in England.”
King’s College Hospital said: “There is a sufficient supply of single-use PPE across the Trust – including gowns and coveralls. Clinical areas are restocked twice a day, or more frequently if needed.”
People are petrified...
They have seen colleagues die already
SUSAN MASTERS DIRECTOR AT ROYAL COLLEGE OF NURSING