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NHS staff are still being provided with expired ‘personal protective equipment’ (PPE), even after countless assurances from government ministers that they are providing appropriate equipment to front line workers.
The ongoing failure to provide adequate equipment to NHS staff was recently revealed on Twitter. Pictures circulating on Twitter show that old expiry dates are being overwritten with new expiry dates on vital protective equipment that is being provided to surgeons working in the NHS.
Dr Maryyum Mehmood, an academic at the University of Birmingham, posted the above picture on social media, showing that the old expiry date has been rubbed off slightly and and replaced with a new one.
The old expiry date on the pictured PPE package states 2016 while the new expiry date states 2019, even the new date means that the equipment is of no good use anymore.
The academic posted the picture on social media in support of her brother who is a surgeon: “Having waited months for PPE, I’d like to know why my bro, a junior NHS surgeon, has been provided w/ expired equipment?”.
“72% of all NHS & care staff to die w/ COVID-19 are BAME. My bro is a frontline worker and has been deemed high-risk. @GOVUK please provide appropriate PPE”, urged Dr Mehmood.
Providing health care professionals with out-of-date equipment has become a recurring theme as it was reported a while ago that nurses raised ‘alarm after practices sent PPE with altered expiry date‘.
Providing doctors, especially those from a BAME background, with faulty or expired protective equipment is a wider issue which has also been highlighted repeatedly by the British Medical Association (BMA).
“More than double the proportion of BAME doctors (44 per cent) have felt pressured to see patients in AGP areas without adequate protection often or sometimes. This compares with 21 per cent who identified as white”, as revealed by the BMA’s own survey.
In response to Dr Maryyum Mehmood’s tweet, many people have again criticised the government for failing to ensure the health and safety of doctors, especially of those from a BAME background because they are at a higher risk of fatality.
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Muhammed Raza Hussain is an award-winning writer: the Extra-Mile winner of the News Quest Young Reporter Scheme 2014 and the recipient of the ‘Talent for Writing’ certificate by Young Writers. He was also awarded the ‘Prize for Outstanding achievement is Sociology‘. Twitter: @M_RAZA5 | Instagram: @M.Raza.H_
