COVID-19: Medical staff fear running out of safety equipment

KOCHI: The long-drawn-out battle with COVID-19, in its fourth week now, is overstretching the state’s medical facilities. The fear of running out of face masks, gloves and other safety gear has hit staff. And medics are now scraping the very bottom of the barrel to manage Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for daily use. As per a staff working at the Government Medical College Hospital (MCH), Kalamassery, which is now a ‘Covid Treatment Centre’, around 70 nursing staff work on a single shift lasting four hours. Almost all require PPE and other safety gear. Without the equipment, they will either not be able to treat patients or will be doing so at great risk to their lives.

Gracy George (name changed), a nursing staff at MCH, Kalamassery, told TNIE that the staff are apprehensive of the possibility of having to work without adequate safety equipment. “So far, there is no shortage of PPE, N95 masks, gloves, and other safety gear for staff. But we fear that whatever we have may not be available during an emergency as the patient inflow is increasing. If that’s the case, we will soon run into a shortage of safety gear,” she said. 

A nursing staff cannot enter the isolation wards without wearing a PPE and gloves, Gracy said. “Even after treating Covid positive cases, getting back home or to our hostel is a very risky affair.” Biju S V, secretary of the Trained Nurses Association of India (TNAI), said they have not received any complaints as such from any centres regarding the shortage of safety gear. “But we will make sure that the staff are provided with sufficient protective gear while dealing with Covid patients,” he said. 

“Earlier, there rose a few complaints from hospital staff that there was a shortage of surgical masks. Nurses and other staff were forced to use cloth masks, which serve no purpose while dealing with the Covid-19 symptoms. But that problem was solved after they were supplied with sufficient number of surgical masks.” The Kerala Medical Services Corporation officials said they have around 50,000 N95 masks and other safety kit.