MSPs team up with Record on PPE demands
OPPOSITION politicians yesterday joined the Daily Record in calling for enhanced PPE for healthcare workers.
On Saturday, we told how terrified nurses go home in tears over fears the PPE is not enough to protect them from the rapidly spreading new coronavirus strain.
The Record has been raising the PPE issue with the Scottish Government for at least nine months but ministers insist it is safe.
The Scottish Parliament will debate Covid-19 and healthcare staff safety today after Labour’s Health Spokeswoman Monica Lennon tabled a motion, Protecting Scotland’s Health and Care Workforce.
An open letter signed by 1500 healthcare professionals has called for staff in general wards to be given high-quality FFP3 masks.
Hospital staff who work with Covid patients on intensive care wards or deal with aerosol generating procedures such as ventilators are issued with FFP3 masks, which seal round the nose and mouth and come with an air filter.
but all other staff who treat Covid patients are given paper surgeon’s masks to wear, which are known to offer more protection to the patient than the nurse or doctor.
Doctors’ union the bMA and the GMb union are both now calling for “urgent improvements in PPE”.
yesterday, Lennon said: “If we are to have any chance of keeping our NHS operational and avoid a greater backlog of operations and clinical procedures, health services and hospitals must be made Covid-19 safe.
“That means enhanced PPE and a timetable guaranteeing the healthcare workforce is properly vaccinated by the end of February.
“All healthcare staff need safe systems of work. The SNP government must now guarantee they receive will maximum protection and step up the rollout of the vaccine without further excuses or delays.”
Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie also called for a review of masks for medical staff but the move was rejected by Health Secretary Jeane Freeman.
The Scottish Government has maintained the safety of essential frontline workforce is an “absolute priority” but that the advice from Infection Prevention and Control experts in Scotland and the UK IPC cell is that “the evidence does not currently support a change to the type of PPE we use.”