Home Business News Drs warn they could refuse to treat patients without PPE

Drs warn they could refuse to treat patients without PPE

by LLB Reporter
20th Apr 20 9:59 am

Doctors have warned on Monday that they could refuse to treat coronavirus patients to protect their own lives as hospitals are set to run out of PPE today.

The NHS Confederation, the British Medical Association (BMA) and Royal Colleges are all backing their staff over the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE).

So far eighty frontline NHS staff have sadly died from coronavirus and frustration and anger is mounting against the government.

84 tonnes of PPE including 400,000 gowns, face masks, gloves and other vital equipment was due to have arrived on Sunday from Turkey, but this is now delayed.

Some hospitals across the UK are already running near empty of PPE and it has been claimed that the NHS could rune out vital equipment today.

Dr Chaand Nagpul, BMA council chair said, “There are limits to the level of risk staff can be expected to expose themselves and their patients to.

“In the most extreme circumstances, if adequate protective measures are not in place, doctors can refuse to put themselves at risk of becoming infected, and inform their management to make alternative arrangements.”

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health service managers said, “This is very serious and makes a difficult situation worse.

“It would have been better had the government not made the announcement in the first place.

“It now looks more likely that supplies of gowns could run out in some places.”

The British government have been criticised for sending personal protective equipment (PPE) to China, despite a huge shortage of the vital equipment for NHS staff.

The UK government sent over 270,000 pieces of PPE to China in February to help the country tackle coronavirus, the UK having depleted resources, The Sunday Times reported.

Michael Gove was asked whether this statement was true, he said, “We did send protective equipment to China.

“But I think it’s important to stress two things there as well.

“The first thing is that the personal protection equipment that we sent to China was to help with the most extreme outbreak in Wuhan.

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