Our president Dr Samantha Batt Rawden spoke to Sky News about lack of PPE and gagging of doctors who speak out about this. DAUK have been lobbying the government on this topic as part of our #ProtectTheFrontline campaign.
Sammy said: “The Doctors’ Association UK actually wrote an open letter to Boris Johnson 10 days ago now. That was signed in less than 24 hours by 8000 frontline NHS doctors asking for his urgent intervention in getting us more personal protective equipment. Now that was last Sunday and we still have not had a formal response from this government. What we did see last week was the armed forces being drafted in to help us get that PPE to the frontline which is greatly appreciated. But we have heard from our members time and time again that much of this still hasn’t reached where it needs to and actually the supplies that have been delivered – some of it is already running out.”
She then went on to explain that there is no reliable method currently of recording and keeping track of where in the UK there is adequate PPE and where it is needed. She explained that DAUK are working on a solution to this and hope to be able to present it in the next couple of days.
She went on to describe the lack of PPE in GP practices and how one GP surgery had only received 4 surgical masks in a delivery of PPE. She explained that healthcare workers have had to improvise by buying PPE from hardware stores and pleading the public for it.
Sammy was asked about doctors self-isolating and high levels of sickness. She explained that in a survey of 800 doctors, DAUK found that a third of them were self-isolating either because they or somebody in their household has symptoms. She explained that DAUK are calling on NHS England to monitor the rate that healthcare workers are getting sick across the UK.
