Medical unions warn UK stock of protective gowns is critically low

Doctors performing highest-risk procedures on Covid-19 patients lack vital supplies

• Coronavirus – latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

Supplies of protective gowns used to safely treat coronavirus patients have become so depleted that they are no longer available to many doctors in high-risk roles, a medical union has warned.

Only 52% of clinicians carrying out aerosol-generating procedures – those with the greatest risk of transferring the virus – said they had access to the kind of full-sleeve gowns that are mandatory for jobs such as intubating patients so that they can be treated with a ventilator, according to a survey by the Doctors’ Association UK.

Continue reading…