THE Filipino Nurses United (FNU) on Monday rejected the stand of the Department of Health that a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) is not among the main reasons that a high number of health workers are getting infected with the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The FNU backed the World Health Organization’s statement last week that the lack of PPE and its improper use could be among factors for the 13 percent infection rate among Filipino healthcare workers. Other countries in the Western Pacific Region, the WHO said, show only about 2 to 3 percent infection among healthcare workers.
The infection rate is actually 16 percent of the total number of COVID-19 cases (7,777 as of Monday). Based on latest DOH data, 1,245 healthcare workers have been infected with COVID-19 — 471 nurses, 464 physicians, 69 nursing assistants, 41 medical technologists, 25 radiologic technologists, and 10 midwives. The number of infected workers as of April 26 was 1,101.
Twenty-seven medical frontliners have died, including 21 physicians and six nurses.
The FNU, in a statement, said it agrees with the WHO the shortage in PPE sets have caused the “very worrisome” high rate of infected health workers.
“FNU believes that the main reason for the alarming increase of health workers, like nurses and doctors, infected with COVID-19 is the lack of protection within their workplace and not exposure outside their workplace,” said FNU.
They said the DOH was able to provide the PPE sets only on the first week of April. As a consequence, nurses had to make do to protect themselves between February and March. The first COVID cases in the country were discovered in January.
“At that time when PPEs were inadequate, many nurses were exposed to COVID-19 patients equipped only with ordinary cloth masks or ill-fitting surgical masks, unsurprisingly turning nurses themselves into suspected or confirmed cases,” it said.
The group also cited the long duty hours of more than eight hours per shift or over 40 hours a week due to severe understaffing, making health workers more vulnerable to COVID-19.
Added to this, the group said, nurses reportedly do not eat, drink, or take comfort room breaks so as not to soil or discard their PPE sets.
“These make them much more vulnerable to COVID-19 and other diseases due to weakened immune systems,” said FNU.
Last week, the WHO expressed concerns over the high number of healthcare workers infected by COVID-19 in the Philippines and said lack of PPE sets and improper use are among the factors it is looking into for the high infection rate among healthcare workers.
The DOH, however, rejected the WHO’s conclusion saying patients not providing complete medical history during their assessment as well as exposure outside of workplaces make the healthcare workers vulnerable to COVID-19.
PPE DONATION
The family of Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian donated P30 million worth of PPE sets and other medical supplies for the use of frontliners.
The items were received by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Carlito Galvez, chief implementer of the National Action Plan COVID-19, at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City on Sunday afternoon.
Gatchalian and his brother, Valenzuela City, 1st district Rep. Weslie Gatchalian, turned over the supplies shortly after the arrival of the items from Fujian in China, aboard a C-130 plane of the Philippine Air Force.
Armed Forces chief Gen. Felimon Santos Jr and Air Force chief Lt. Gen. Allen Paredes were also present to witness the handover of the supplies.
The donated supplies were composed of 20,000 PPE sets, 500,000 pieces of surgical face masks, 3,000 face shields, 3,000 goggles, 100,000 gloves, and 42,000 KN-95 face masks.
The supplies are under the care of the Office of Civil Defense which will be managing their distribution to hospitals. Gatchalian said the supplies are medical-grade and met the standards of the Department of Health.
Lorenzana thanked the Gatchalian family for the donation. He also said government continues to procure PPE sets for hospitals and medical institutions. He said the government has recently procured one million PPE sets from China. — With Victor Reyes
