Jonny - nurse - Whiston
Hi, I saw your tweet regarding PPE in Liverpool hospitals.
Please keep my anonymous if used as I don’t want to be disciplined as a result. At the moment in Whiston we are using masks that aren’t approved by WHO as we ran out of the others.
The policy has also changed so that we can’t change our masks after patients even if they’re covid positive due to supply issues.
At the minute we are in with positive patients for up to 15-20 mins at a time with an apron that only covers our bellies, normal gloves, and small masks that aren’t who recommended.
Also, our kits that contain FFP3 masks that are saved for Aerosol Producing Procedures or CPR are being broken into by external agency staff and they’re using the masks for patients that aren’t confirmed, resulting in delays in getting to patients that need life saving care or CPR because the equipment is not available.
There’s no one to blame other than the government for not protecting its healthcare workers, especially when there was plenty of time from the initial warnings in January from the Chinese government.
Everyone is scared and feeling unprotected. Our new normal of introducing DNACPRs to patients that wouldn’t normally be considered for this before corona, although necessary at this moment in time due to the severity of the situation, could have totally been avoided if the government acted quicker in enacting stay at home orders and also ordering adequate equipment. Too many people will die now because of the Tory government and their failings to the health service and the British people.
Nurse at the Royal
"The ward I work on is full of covid patients.
"Intensive Treatment Unit and Critical Care are where the really poorly patients go, but there are lots of other patients with the symptoms are on other wards like mine.
"We have been told that the PPE we have been using will be changed, from the full gown to the smaller white apron and facemask.
"We've got families as well, we are people, we have children - we are all really frightened and knackered, working 13-hour shifts and this feels like another blow.
"As nurses we aren't getting tested, none of us know if we have got the virus or not, we want to be safe and we want our patients to be safe.
"The Royal itself is not in a good condition, we are worried about how we will cope when the peak comes.
"I would never have dreamed of speaking to the Liverpool Echo about the NHS, because I love it and its fantastic - but we feel a bit desperate at the moment.
"It feels like a fundamental bit of kit that was making us feel more safe and secure is being removed.
"All my colleagues feel this way, we are all really worried."
Heart and chest (don't mention)
I work at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital.
We have enough gowns to last 5 more days, our visors have been donated from schools and random people, the FFP3 mask we have most supply of (3M - product code 8833) expired in 2017 but has been reclassified as safe and given a new expiration date of 2021.
Our most recent push order from NHS England was for gloves of which we already had plenty of.
Nurses are scared to go in but are. We have over 20 confirmed cases and receive more nearly every day.
We have had zero misuse of PPE, in fact nurses have rationed (against their health and safety) to ensure there’s enough for the following shift. It’s a disgrace.
The gowns we have don’t fit larger people (myself) and the aprons we are using are bog standard ones we have always had (fancy, long sleeved ones ran out weeks ago).
Staff are keeping the hair gowns they are wearing as there isn’t enough. This isn’t the trusts fault, they’ve been brilliant, but we are being failed by NHS England which is being failed by the government. Please don’t use my name or hospital. Report what you want from this tho, it needs to be out there.
We are being failed and that’s down to the government. We have 30 people off sick, most of whom have tested positive. We have staff who have caught this in work from wearing surgical masks to treat suspected patients because we didn’t have sufficient FFP3 stock to cover all staff in the beginning.
Since the beginning of January we have been trying to purchase PPE knowing what was coming - or preparing and hoping it wouldn’t come - but because we make fuck all in this country we couldn’t get enough. And then it kicked off and we have very little. Manufacturing in this country is awful. We have no hand sanitizer, which isn’t that big a deal as soap (Hibi scrub) and water is fine, but a hospital without basics like alcohol gel means we won’t have specialist PPE as well. As I said, the visors - which we now have to wear because they changed the guidelines - are donated from schools and people making them with 3D printers. All of them non sterile and we have to clean them overnight so there is some for the following day. It’s a joke mate, and yet we all go back in do it all again."
Royal Trust
Stuck to national standards as a minumum
Trust added the gowns
gowns a challenge
balance of gowns against the supply chain
100% compliant with the issue of PPE
Changed working practice
centralised ordering and distribution model
count stocks every morning, working effectively
staff used to seeing lots of stock at ward level, PPE has become a valuable commodity
Delivering in just in time manner, locked away in some instances
Increase in demand,
Liverpool ahead of the game, purchased face shield, reusable with cleaning process
Gowns - national supply disruption
Trust sourcing outside national supply routes
Mutual aid - 50,000 items to North Mersey care homes
