Coronavirus: Care organisation worries about PPE

1:49 pm on 24 April 2020

The supply of Covid-19 masks, gowns and goggles for community workers is still being criticised as far too slow.

The package of the N95 mask states the PPE item is not for re-use.

Photo: Supplied

The government is reviewing the distribution of personal protective equipment to ensure it is making its way from district health boards to frontline services.

Community Connections, a group supporting people with disabilities, says it was forced to spend thousands of dollars of its own budget on PPE for staff.

The organisation covers the lower North Island, from Hawke's Bay across to Taranaki south.

Executive director John Taylor said he had to wait several weeks for a small and incomplete delivery of safety equipment from DHBs.

He said after two and a half weeks only 300 single-use masks were delivered, but Community Connections has a workforce of 270 people so that only meant about one per person, which was completely inadequate.

Taylor said they had returned to the DHB a few times to try and get more PPE.

"After about 10 days of getting nothing we went out and purchased about 1300 masks ourselves which is why our supplies are better."

Taylor said there was a situation where it was suspected someone might have Covid-19.

"And I have to say at that stage the DHB involved turned up with 500 masks and gloves and santisers and everything within days, within about two days, so they can respond fast, but they tend not to."

Taylor said despite Ministry of Health guidelines that people working in this way do not require masks, it's raising the anxiety levels of the staff who work in the community and most of them would prefer to have masks for piece of mind.

"Because they're working with individuals in the community and we have no control over that individual's bubble, so we don't know if they are sticking to the rules or not, so our staff are going in and they are quite exposed."

Level 3 will require the same level of protection, he said.

Taylor said the organisation will continue to buy PPE and they will continue to badger the Ministry of Health and the DHBs to get more PPE out to staff.

Meanwhile, Women's Refuge says it took almost a month of lockdown before it received safety masks from district health boards.

Chief executive Ang Jury said she finally received a small number of masks a couple of days ago.

She said that is appreciated but gloves and hand sanitiser are also needed.