NHS frontline coronavirus medics forced to ‘cut up plastic curtains to make protective gown’ due to PPE shortage
EXHAUSTED NHS medics were forced to cut up hospital curtains to make makeshift gowns due to a lack of protective clothing.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said more than 742 million pieces of Personal Protective Clothing (PPE) have been delivered but NHS medics still say they are lacking the crucial equipment they need to keep safe.
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Disturbing reports from frontline medics tell of hospital staff having to raid cupboards to re-use old theatre scrubs.
saw a report of doctors being measured for aprons made of plastic curtains.
It read: "No immediate stocks of gowns due in national supply chain in the next few days. We are unsighted on when deliveries will be."
One anonymous doctor at King's College Hospital in South London told the Mirror they were cutting staff levels on the ICU ward as "there simply aren't enough PPE" to protet staff tackling the coronavirus.
"All staff are worried about the lack of basic kit," said the source. "There are not enough gowns and colleagues in similar hospitals across the capital say the same.
"We are using around 2,000 single-use 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."
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it required a "Herculean logisitical effort" to distribute masks, gloves, aprons and hand sanitiser to frontline workers.
He announced at yesterday's Downing Street conference that over the next week hospitals will receive daily deliveries, up from once every 72 hours.
More than 742 million pieces of PPE have been delivered so far during the outbreak, said Mr Hancock.
This includes 161 million masks, 127 million aprons, one million gown and 345 million pairs of gloves.
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He told BBC Breakfast on Saturday it was important healthcare workers use the "right amount" of PPE.
"I am not impugning anyone who works for the NHS and I think they do an amazing job," said Mr Hancock.
"But what I am reiterating, stressing, is the importance to use the right amount of PPE both to have enough and also to use it as the precious resource that it is."
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) was quick to dismiss any suggestions that healthcare staff were "abusing or overusing" PPE.
RCN general secretary Dame Donna said: "I take offence actually that we are saying that healthcare workers are abusing or overusing PPE".
Aimée Goold, from East Retford, Notts, described working at UK’s covid-19 frontline as going “through hell” in an emotional Facebook post.
She shared a shocking picture of her face covered in PPE sores and urged people to stay at home and follow the Government's advice.
Three nurses who were forced to wear bin liners due to a lack of PPE have all since reportedly tested positive for Covid-19.
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The heroic trio were snapped wearing the makeshift hazmat suits made of bright blue bags at Northwick Park Hospital in North West London last month.
The news comes as Holby City soap donated ventilators from the set of the series to the NHS.
Though some viewers were confused as to why the soap had real ventilators worth thousands of pounds on set.
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