Protect Our Doctors And Nurses

Chronic shortage of NHS protection Medics say fresh masks now a ‘luxury’

- Grace Macaskill, Alan Selby, Janine Yaqoob And Kelly Jenkins

A crippling shortage of protective gear has left NHS staff “lambs to the slaughter”, a worried medic said yesterday.

The warning came as two doctors became the first frontline workers to die from coronavirus in the UK and the national death toll hit 1,019.

The new figure followed 260 deaths – the biggest daily leap. Of those, 13 were reportedly healthy adults with no underlying condition.

Medics liken scenes in Britain’s hospitals to war zones.

And a nurse said some colleagues without adequate protection are refusing to treat patients, for fear of spreading the disease further. In a series of developments yesterday:

• The Medical Director of NHS England, Professor Stephen Powis, said if the UK were to keep the number of deaths below 20,000 “we will have done very well”.
• Confirmed UK cases rose to 17,089, but the true toll is much higher as thousands self-isolate without ever being recorded.
• PM Boris Johnson said things “will get worse before they get better”.
• It emerged hospital staff begged a school for spare safety equipment.
• NHS staff even trawled sites like eBay and Groupon searching for masks, gowns and gloves.

The NHS needs many millions of PPE kits – personal protection equipment. Masks are meant to be used only once to avoid the risk of transmitting disease – but there aren’t enough so staff re-use them.

The developments came as virushit PM Boris Johnson penned a letter to the nation’s 30 million households warning Britain needed to slow the spread of the disease.

Mr Johnson – said by No10 to have “mild symptoms and well enough to be working” – chaired yesterday’s Covid-19 meeting by video conference.