Healthcare system has serious deficiencies in terms of personal protective equipment in fight against COVID-19 (union)

Bucharest, March 17 /Agerpres/ - The perception of the employees in healthcare is that the healthcare system is not ready yet to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest weakness being the serious deficiencies in terms of personal protective equipment, says the "Health Solidarity" Federation, which published a survey on Tuesday in which employees from the system participated. "The general conclusion based on the data indicates that the Romanian healthcare system is not prepared yet for the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest weakness being the serious deficiencies in terms of personal protective equipment. The authorities' refusal to observe the rules of social dialogue worsens the situation, emphasizing the degree of distrust of the employees," reads the release sent by the trade union organization. Thus, 78 pct of the respondents stated that the medical unit in which they operate does not have sufficient personal protective equipment, 70.92 pct of the respondents affirmed they received disposable gloves, 69.36 pct stated that they received surgical masks, and 19.08 pct mention that they received disposable waterproof scrubs. 63 pct of the respondents said that they had not received the job protection training related to the medical care of the patients infected with the coronavirus; 55.68 pct indicated the same for patients suspected of being infected with the virus; 65 pct of the respondents indicated that they had not been trained on the use, putting in and disposal of the personal protective equipment (PPE); 51.58 pct of the employees said that they had not been provided with protocols for the evaluation, triage and treatment of patients with COVID 19, and 42.6 pct of the respondents stated that they had to buy protective materials. Only 13.3 pct of the questioned employees consider that the current level of the medical staff in the unit is adequate to the volume of patients that could be admitted. AGERPRES (RO - author: George Coman; editor: Andreea Marinescu; EN - author: Bogdan Gabaroi, editor: Simona Iacob)