“A friend who works at a major hospital in reception at radiology tells me she is not allowed to wear a mask or face shield and yet patients lean across the counter to speak to her. There are no perspex screens in place.”
A senior nurse who has been in the profession for 25 years and is part of a chat group of more than 200 nurses treating Covid patients said that in the past fortnight, large deliveries of masks had been made to hospitals but many of those had unclear labelling and were not appropriate for use in hospitals. She said there were also differences in standards between hospitals. Some major tertiary hospitals were providing nurses with similar standards of protection to doctors and surgeons, while other hospitals were telling some nurses they were “low risk” even if they were swabbing potentially positive Covid-19 patients.
“We are not saying the governments aren’t doing anything,” she said. “The supplies are getting better. But where are they procuring these masks from? Why aren’t they meeting standards?”
More than 1,100 Victorian healthcare workers have contracted Covid overall, including active and non-active cases. The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee is reviewing its advice on PPE use by health professionals.
Source: Hundreds of types of face masks withdrawn from sale in Australia amid safety fears | Australia news | The Guardian
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