Doctors are being forced in droves to reuse PPE intended to be deployed just once owing to a “desperate” shortage.
A poll by the Royal College of Physicians found that a quarter of doctors are having to re-use protective kit meant to be worn just once.
Meanwhile, a BBC Panorama investigation has found that key items of PPE were not included in the government’s pandemic stockpile.
Gowns, visors, swabs and body bags were left out of the stockpile when it was set up in 2009. Some of the items are now in short supply.
A Government spokesman told the programme that the expert committee that advises ministers on new and emerging respiratory virus threats, known as Nervtag, did not recommend stockpiling swabs and body bags.
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They said the stockpile was designed for a flu pandemic, and Covid-19 has a higher hospitalisation rate.
The Royal College of Physician’s president Professor Andrew Goddard said the survey revealed a “terrible state of affairs”.
The protective clothes should be worn only once because washing them at temperatures high enough to kill coronavirus weakens their effectiveness.
(Image: Getty Images)
The Royal College’s poll found that 27 per cent of doctors were re-using their personal protective equipment or had done so.
Prof Goddard told the Daily Mail : “Many personal protective equipment items are designed for single use and should only be re-used in extreme circumstances.
“That so many people are having to re-use PPE shows how desperate the shortages are.
“This is a truly terrible state of affairs. As a bare minimum we expect our health service to provide the equipment we need to protect ourselves and our patients.”
Panorama, meanwhile, reported that Nervtag said gowns, one of the items in shortest supply in the UK, should be purchased last June.
Professor John Ashton, a public health expert who has previously criticised the Government’s approach, said the failure to stockpile some items meant NHS staff were working without crucial equipment.
He told the programme: “The consequence of not planning, not ordering kit, not having stockpiles, is that we are sending into the frontline doctors, nurses, other health workers and social care workers without the equipment to keep them safe.”
A Department for Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: “This is an unprecedented global pandemic and we have taken the right steps at the right time to combat it, guided at all times by the best scientific advice.
“The Government has been working day and night to battle against coronavirus, delivering a strategy designed at all times to protect our NHS and save lives.”
