DAUK (working in partnership with Messly) logged >1500 reports nationally highlighting inadequate access to PPE; 220 reports frontline doctors being warned, threatened, disciplined, or made to feel bullied or unsupported…
With NHS staff having to leave the frontlines to isolate, and patients travelling up to 500 miles to find a centre, DAUK’s Dr Sophie Rowlands explains the results of DAUK’s which shows NHS staff being unable to access timely testing.
Rinesh Parmar, chair of the Doctors Association UK, told the chief coroner in a letter, “The guidance you have issued appears to be contrary to the legal requirements imposed on coroners by statute.”
He added, “We are extremely concerned by your suggestion that coronavirus deaths of healthcare workers will not usually require investigation. We believe that it may deny grieving families the answers to which they are entitled.
“Unless inquests are opened in each case, vital evidence in relation to that individual case will not be preserved and the opportunity to find out what went wrong will be lost irretrievably. We invite you to review your guidance and to amend it to ensure that it properly reflects the legal position and that these bereaved families receive access to the investigative procedures to which they are entitled.”
"Inquests into the deaths of NHS workers from coronavirus should not examine systemic failures in the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE), the Chief Coroner has warned."
"Rinesh Parmar, the chair of the Doctors Association UK, said the issue of whether a lack of PPE contributed to some of the deaths would be an essential part of the inquest process."
"He said: "The provision of PPE is so vital to the safety of health workers that to suggest coroners do not consider its supply in detail misses a big part of the picture. Only comprehensive inquests into the deaths of every NHS and care worker will give the bereaved the ability to ask questions and have the circumstances of their loved ones’ deaths fully explained."
DAUK’s Dr David Nicholl speaks to Black Country Radio about lack of PPE
Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, president of the Doctors’ Association UK, said: “It is not acceptable to be using gowns which are not fluid-repellant, or indeed rely just on flimsy plastic aprons and hope for the best. Our own data from 1,500 doctors across over 250 sites suggests that just 25 per cent of respondents have access to proper long-sleeve gowns, and this trend is getting worse.”
DAUK is so proud to announce that we have teamed up with crowdfunders Let’s Beat COVID and NHS Heroes Support to deliver PPE to the frontlines. Over 45,000 masks, 500 gowns, as well as visors, scrubs and alcohol gel have already been ordered, and much of this has already been delivered.
