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NEWS Socialist Worker 1 April 2020
7

Health workers die in lack of

equipment ‘national scandal’

Weeks after the government insisted the shortage of personal protective equipment was

being resolved, doctors and nurses are getting ill, and some die because they still can’t get it

THE FIRST health workers VENTILATORS
in Britain have died due to
coronavirus in a sign of the Deadly shortage
horrors to come for a woefully threatens care
underfunded NHS.
Amged el-Hawrani, a doctor
based in Leicestershire, died after HOSPITALS HAVE started
testing positive for Covid-19 at rationing ventilators for patients as
the weekend. His case follows the the coronavirus death toll rises.
deaths of London-based surgeon Adil The NHS has 8,000 ventilators,
el-Tayar and Essex GP Habib Zaidi. but it’s predicted to need at least
Meanwhile, West Midlands 30,000 to treat people with acute
nurse Areema Nasreen was fighting respiratory difficulties caused by
for her life in intensive care after the virus.
contracting coronavirus. The lack of ventilators is
Health workers fear that more another example of how Tory
of their colleagues will die without policy left the NHS exposed to the
the proper personal protective pandemic.
equipment (PPE). Rival firms are busy competing
Abebi, a health care assistant at for contracts to boost their profits.
the Whittington Hospital in north Several companies have said
London, says workers are “very wor- their offers to supply ventilators
ried” about workplace conditions. were ignored in recent weeks.
“You see on the TV people Specialist makers say that they
wearing the full clothing, but that’s have been sidelined in favour of
just not the case fo r us,” she told
Socialist Worker.
“We wear just the plastic aprons,
gloves and single use masks.”
Abebi said the lack of proper
PPE meant “some people are not
coming” to work because they fear
catching the virus or because they
are self-isolating.
Financially
“It’s very, very tough at the minute,”
she added. “Some people don’t even
go on a break during their shift.
“It’s not enough to have clapping NOT ENOUGH ventilators for NHS
for health workers, the government
should help to relieve us financially. big-name manufacturers with
“They should check all the staff unproven models.
for coronavirus.” Dyson this week said it had
Outrage forced the Tories to received a government order
announce limited testing for for 10,000 ventilators designed
frontline health workers. from scratch, subject to passing
But testing will be reserved for regulatory tests.
staff who display symptoms of coro- DR ADIL el-Tayar, Dr Amged el-Hawrani, nurse Areema Nasreen and Dr Habib Zaidi all hit by Covid-19 A separate proposal could have
navirus or who live with people who supplied the NHS with as many as
have symptoms. This is a far cry from PPE and what we have isn’t even 25,000 ventilators from China. It
“The hypocrisy of clapping NHS Privatising the Nightingale
the World Health Organisation’s WHO standard,” he said. similarly went unanswered until it
(WHO) mantra of, “Test, test, test,” was too late, according to the two
to stop the spread of the virus. workers and yet the government companies behind it.
Richard Horton, editor of The not supporting them to go into Firms Direct Access and Topland
Lancet medical journal, slammed that frontline is tragic and it was THE TORIES didn’t waste any London, the firm still hasn’t General Trading say they first
the Tory government’s coronavirus preventable.” time to use a makeshift NHS coughed up unpaid wages contacted officials on 16 March
strategy as “nothing short of a Unions have been far too slow hospital in east London to hand to some of the lowest-paid with a plan to manufacture 5,000
national scandal”. to demand proper PPE and mass out money to big business. support staff weeks after machines a week.
“We should not be in this testing, fearing they would lose They are building the payments were due. “Had quicker action been taken
position,” he said. “We knew in the their seats at the top table along- Nightingale hospital in the Some cleaners, domestics then, we would now have supplied
last week of January that this was side bosses and ministers. Excel conference centre in and porters were not paid up to 15,000 ventilators with a
coming. But growing demands from rank Canning Town, with plans properly on 27 February and further delivery of 10,000 within
“We then wasted February when and file workers to demand higher for around ten other sites walked out unofficially when the next two weeks,” said Topland
we could have acted, could have quality masks and clothing in trusts across Britain, including in this wasn’t rectified in March. owner Andy Faulkner.
got personal protective equipment could spur the unions into action. Birmingham and Manchester. It’s time to kick out Now a backlog of orders mean
ready and disseminated.” Abebi is a pseudonym One of the firms that the privatisers, scrap the that it will take the firm two to
Horton singled out the problem has been given a contract whole “internal market” three months to provide a similar
of equipping workers with the cor- On other pages... is outsourcing giant ISS. in the NHS and spend number of ventilators.
not available, it’s the wrong kind of  The myth of the ‘Blitz Spirit’ hospital in south east the money on workers, the anarchy of the market cannot
At nearby Lewisham
rect PPE.
This scandal again shows how
patients and equipment.
“I’m hearing that not only is PPE
deal with the coronavirus crisis.
>>Pages 10&11