The RCN has written to the workplace safety watchdog raising concerns over protective equipment.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is demanding answers from the Government on why frontline health and social care workers are being subjected to a “postcode lottery” over personal protective equipment (PPE)
The union says the Government’s has failed to address concerns about PPE in the face of new highly infectious variants of the Covid-19 virus.
Updated government guidance on infection prevention and PPE, issued on Thursday night, deepens the PPE lottery by accepting the use of different masks in neighbouring hospitals, despite similarly high risk and pressure.
Earlier this year frontline staff were issued repurposed bin bags instead of approved PPE.
RCN Chief Executive and General Secretary, Dame Donna Kinnair, has now written to the Government and the workplace safety watchdog warning that this inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE) may be putting the lives of nursing staff, their colleagues, families and patients at risk.
The letter calls for staff to be given access to improved PPE such as FFP2 and FFP3 masks.
Kinnair said: “The Government’s silence on this issue is creating a postcode lottery for nursing staff whereby some working on wards have access to the higher-grade face masks and others do not.
“It must stop dragging its feet on this issue. Nursing staff need to have full confidence that they are protected.
“Staff picking up this virus at work are angered at any suggestion they have stopped following the rules – this is down to the new variant and the dangerous shortage of adequate protection.”
In her letter to the minister she adds: “We are very concerned that our members may now be at greater risk of infection as a result of their occupation.
“They are aware that fluid repellent surgical face masks and face coverings, as currently advised in most general healthcare settings and patients’ homes, are not protective against smaller infective aerosols despite the government video outlining risks of infective aerosols in the air.”
