Three nurses who were forced to wear bin bags due to lack of protective equipment all ‘test positive for coronavirus’
THREE nurses who were forced to wear bin liners due to a lack of protective equipment have all tested positive for coronavirus, it is reported.
The heroic trio were snapped wearing the makeshift hazmat suits made of bright blue bags at Northwick Park Hospital in North West London last month.
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Staff there pleaded for more kit to protect themselves from the killer bug as they battled to treat a tsunami of patients.
But the three nurses in the photo have all now been confirmed to have Covid-19, the reports.
The group all tested positive at a North London testing centre last week, according to an unnamed senior source quoted by the paper.
And they are not the only ones to be hit by the devastating diagnosis at the embattled hospital – which was the first to declare a critical incident after a surge of patients.
We need proper PPE kit now, or nurses and doctors are going to die. It’s as simple as that."
Nurse at Northwick Park Hospital
More than 50 per cent of staff on one ward – including the matron and ward manager – were found to have contracted the virus, it is reported.
Staff at the hospital have also been warned not to speak to the press about continuing shortages of protective kit, the source said.
Medics there last month spoke anonymously to plead for masks, gowns and gloves.
One nurse said: “We need proper PPE kit now, or nurses and doctors are going to die. It’s as simple as that.
“We’re treating our own colleagues on the ward after they caught the virus from patients. How can that be right?”
The nurse heartbreakingly added: “And the worst part is that we can’t allow their relatives in to say goodbye.
“Even our own families don’t want us to come home in case we bring back the disease.”
Fourteen other NHS medics have been claimed by the virus including 44-year veteran NHS nurse Alice Kit Tak Ong, 70, who died this week.
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Dr Anton Sebastianpillai, a consultant geriatrician, was also killed by coronavirus on Saturday at Kingston Hospital.
On Monday, heart surgeon and dad-of-two Jitendra Rathod, who worked at the University Hospital of Wales, died in Cardiff after testing positive for Covid-19.
And John Alagos, 23, is believed to be the youngest British medic to have died from the deadly bug – collapsing after a 12-hour hospital shift "without the right kit".
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: "We are working around the clock to give the NHS and the wider social care sector the equipment and support they need to tackle this outbreak.
"Every single hospital, community pharmacy and ambulance trust has now had a PPE delivery. Yesterday we delivered over 30 million items of PPE to NHS Trusts in England, and over the last few weeks, over 600 million items of PPE have been delivered, including masks, gowns, aprons and gloves.
"The full weight of the Government is behind this effort and we continue to work closely with industry, social care providers, the NHS, NHS Supply Chain and the Army so all our NHS and care staff have the protection they deserve.'
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