It has been reported that three nurses who were forced to use bin bags during their shift due to a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) tested positive for coronavirus. Just a few weeks ago, nurses shared a photo of themselves wearing bin bags there were for clinical waste on their heads and feet after they had requested hospital-grade masks, clothes, and gloves at the Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, London.
The hospital had previously declared an emergency after all intensive care beds were filled with patients. The Daily Telegraph reports that more than 50% of staff working in one ward have tested positive for coronavirus.
The nurses told the Daily Telegraph in March that they had to ‘use their initiative’ by wearing the bin bags, as they had ‘no other choice’ due to the lack of PPE available.
One nurse said that they desperately needed some proper protective equipment, and that they were forced to treat their own colleagues after they had caught the virus from patients.
She told the Telegraph: ‘There are so many younger people here on ventilation – many with asthma, or diabetes. They can’t stop coughing, they just cough and cough and cough and they can’t help it – but there’s little we can do apart from try to help them breathe.
‘Sometimes the body just gives up, and they die. We can’t save them. The worst part is that we can’t allow their relatives in to say goodbye.’
She added that the nurses had been putting on ‘brave smiles’, but that realistically, they were all ‘terrified’. Many of the nurses said that they had not seen their own families for quite some time, out of fear they would spread the virus to them.
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