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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider Healthcare workers still struggling with PPE shortage

Healthcare workers still struggling with PPE shortage

Published Jul 19, 2020 06:55 pm

The Filipino Nurses United (FNU) said personal protective equipment (PPE) shortage is taking its toll among healthcare workers amid rising COVID-19 cases.

(JANSEN ROMERO / MANILA BULLETIN)

FNU President Maristela Abejonar, in an interview over DzBB on Sunday, underscored healthcare workers' need for PPEs.

"Nananatili na hindi sila protektado. Ang tanging pinanghahawakan sana nila yung PPE na maibigay sa kanila nang sapat, libre, ay hindi po available. Kailangan pa nilang bumili. Yung iba naman po pinagkakasya ang PPE sa 12 hours na shift kasi tinitipid nga po. (They remain unprotected. They are hoping to receive enough PPE supply, to no avail. They still have to buy their own. Others use the same PPE for their 12-hour shift due to lack of budget)," Abejonar said.

Abejonar added that ideally, healthcare workers should be changing their PPEs after attending to one patient.

"Kasi kung meron kang sampung pasyente sa ward, hindi dapat pare-pareho yung PPE na suot... Kasi otherwise ibinabalik mo lang yung contaminated mo na PPE. (Let's say you have 10 patients in a ward, you should not reuse your PPE... otherwise you're just returning the virus in your contaminated PPE)," she said.

"Yung mga ganitong bagay hindi naipapatupad nang maayos. Ang katibayan po nyan ay tumataas na number ng ating infecred health workers. (These things are not being implemented properly. Increasing number of infected healthcare workers is the evidence)," Abejonar also said.

Abejonar noted that PPE shortage contributes to the rising number of healthcare workers getting infected by COVID-19.

"Nung Huwebes may isang maintenance staff sa San Lazaro namatay dahil sa COVID. Nung nakaraang araw meron tayong dalawang miyembro ng FNU na naging kritikal ang sitwasyon nila dahil sa COVID, nasa ICU (Last Thursday (July 16), a maintenance staff in San Lazaro Hospital succumbed to COVID-19. The other day there were two members of FNU who became critical due to COVID-19),"

As of July 16, 3,805 healthcare workers have tested positive for COVID-19, 35 of whom have died.

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